Avengers and Tournaments
by coolhacker1025
Summary: Sequel to a "Werewolves and Animaguses" . This is the fourth book in the series, happening roughly around the summer after Harry's Third Year up to around the end of his fourth. As always, H/Hr/G. What will the trio get up to this year? And who is the new Defence Professor? Will be revised again at a later date.
1. Padfoot's House

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 1-Summer at the Burrow (or is it?)

By the time the Weasleys got back to the Burrow, it was fairly quiet, despite having four children and three adults in the house (Percy was considered an 'adult' now that he'd finished Hogwarts. Soon after we returned home, an owl came for us. It was addressed _Ginny Weasley and Family_. It was a handwriting that I was unfamiliar with.

I relieved the owl of its package and opened it. There were pictures of Bianca Lily Granger inside—she was Hermione's sister and my god-daughter. When she saw the pictures of Bianca, mum got excited. "She's so cute! I wonder if her mother is getting enough rest. I should cook something for them. I love children!"

_As if we couldn't tell, _I thought. _There are seven of us in this family._

I then noticed a note in the package.

_Dear Ginny and Family,_

_I hope that your drive home went well; Sirius and the kids just got home a couple of minutes ago, and Dan is out getting pizza while Bianca is down for a nap. I hear that there is some type of World Cup soon?_

_Bianca Lily is doing fine. She is getting to be rather big now. Although you and Harry are registered as her Godparents, your Headmaster and Professor McGonagall just signed papers that said that we are trusting Bianca's safety with them, if the worst were to happen to us. Naturally, once you're seventeen, you'll be allowed to take formal custody of her in your world if need be._

_Dumbledore was very cheerful when he signed the papers; I think that he's almost adopting her as a great-grandchild or something. He gave her socks with some of the most ludicrous designs I have ever seen, but he says that they will always magically expand to the size of Bianca's feet._

_Hopefully you and your mum can come over soon—she seems like such a nice woman, your mother. After all these years, I've forgotten what it's like to have a newborn child around the house._

_Harry and Hermione saw that I was writing you, so they told me to tell you hello. Sirius also just told me about what you did at the Platform—we're going to have a talk, young lady. Don't get scared—I'm just kidding._

_I'm often at Sirius's house, and it seems as though he has a new girlfriend. I think that they might actually be serious. I will, of course, keep you informed._

_We all hope to see you soon, and our apologies that we couldn't see you at the platform._

_Emma_

_PS: Bianca loves it when we read to her. I thing that she will grow up to be _just _like her big sis._

Mum noticed Bianca's name. "Bianca Lily?" she asked. It sounded like she especially emphasised the second name.

"Bianca is a character from a play by Shakespeare," I said. "And yes, Lily is in honour of Harry's mum."

"That's so sweet of them," said Mum as Dad and the others came into the dining room.

"Who's the owl from?" asked Dad.

\\\/

Later that evening, after talking with my family about things, and about the World Cup, I mailed the Grangers back.

_Dear Grangers, Sirius and Harry,_

_I got your letter earlier, but it was busy with family until now. We had to take Luna Lovegood home—remember her, she's a Gryffindor a year below us, sort of strange? You'll find this amusing—she lives with her dad, who's about as strange as she is and owns _The Quibbler (_a newspaper of sorts), in a house that looks like a giant chess rook. Honestly, though, I don't remember them being quite as strange before Celesta died (Luna's mum)._

_Mum read your letter, so I'd go easy on breakfast tomorrow. She is planning to come over, and she always cooks enough for a small army. I suppose that she's used to it, with seven kids in the house. She also said that she'd be willing to watch Bianca if you decide to go to the World Cup._

_That's the amazing part. I was talking with Dad, who you might know works at the Ministry, and he said that he can get you a couple of necklaces that will allow you to get past security—you see, there's various charms to keep Muggles out of the Grounds for the World Cup. He'll make sure that they're discrete, because otherwise, you could become a target._

_I'm coming over tomorrow with Mum, so I'll see you then._

_Ginny_

I sent the letter off with Ron's new owl, which he'd named Pigwidgeon, which is actually what I was thinking of. I thought that it was a pretty name for such a cute owl.

\\\/

The next morning when I went downstairs for breakfast, Mum was already getting the Floo ready to transport food. There was a special way you had to send food through the Floo so that it wouldn't get damaged. She was about to send her cooking utensils through when she saw me.

"Good morning, Ginny," she said. "Are you planning to come with me today?"

"You know I will, Mum," I said while giving her a look that said _Duh! _"It's my two best friends, their parents, and my god-daughter. Of course I'm coming."

"Even if those aforementioned parents will someday become your in-laws?"

"Mum!"

\\\/

We left for Sirius's house at around 10:30. When we got in, Hermione and Harry both tackled me and hugged me until we heard someone clearing their throat.

"Hi, Mr Granger," I said.

"What did I say about calling me that?" he said. "Anyway, this must be your lovely mum."

He reached out his hand to shake hers saying, "I've heard so much about you."

"Hopefully all good," said Mum, using the standard reply.

"Well, Sirius has told us some stories," he said, trailing off. He turned back to me. "After that disgusting public display of affection, I have to ask: What are your intentions with our daughter and Harry?"

I decided to answer in a "Luna-ish" way, so I said, "I plan to do rude things to their bodies until we turn 21, at which point I'm hoping to marry both of them."

Completely ignoring the last part of my sentence, Dan asked, "Rude things?" while making a gesture with his hands that clearly was supposed to mean an adult relationship. Harry and Hermione went almost as red as my hair.

"Yep," I said. "Unfortunately, we haven't done anything like _that_ yet, causing much frustration amongst the other girls in the dormitory."

Mum just caught on to what I was saying. "Ginevra Molly Weasley!"

"It's nature, Mum!"

Just then, Sirius walked in, beaming. "Hello, Mrs Weasley," he said.

"Sirius, what have _I _told you about calling me that?" Mum replied. "You're a semi-responsible adult and technically a grown man. You can call me 'Molly'."

"Don't disparage my character," Sirius said, looking offended. "I'm only responsible when Moony is around! I got Top Box Seats for all of us!"

We all cheered at the mention of the tickets, while Mum, who liked to mother everyone, asked how Remus was doing. Remus Lupin, nicknamed Moony, was our Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor for our third year, and our fourth teacher in that class overall.

Part of me was surprised that more parents hadn't jumped on the Malfoy bandwagon (or more accurately, the Anti-Dumbledore bandwagon). Four teachers in three years for one subject.

Our first professor was a stutterer and being possessed by Lord Voldemort, and had died at the end of the year. Our Second Professor lasted about half a year before attacking Harry, and getting thrown into Azkaban for forgery and fraud. His replacement was an Auror on limited duty, who hadn't intended to stay any longer than the school year.

Remus Lupin had been outed to the school by Severus Snape as a werewolf and had left. The only two decent professors we'd had were forced out of the job.

As I was thinking about this, Mum had continued her conversation with Sirius, finishing up with, "That poor man. You should invite him over, and I'll make sure that he eats enough."

That was Mum's way. If someone else has a problem, feed them. If she has a problem, she either screams at you, cooks, or both. Half the world looked too skinny to her. Fortunately, she was good at cooking, and very prolific.

Harry, Hermione, and I went up to Hermione's room. I found the fact that she had her own bedroom showed just how often she stayed the night at Sirius's, instead of next door at her own parents' house. She had many pictures of me on the bookshelves which covered the walls. There were so many bookshelves that there was barely enough room for the closet and the bed. I noticed quite quickly that the bed was big enough for two girls to sleep on—specifically, Hermione and me.

"You should get Sirius to enlarge the room a bit, Hermione," I said.

"He has," she replied, looking somewhat embarrassed. "These are just the books that don't fit in my room at home."

That statement truly showed how many books Hermione had, for there were easily a thousand or so books in this room, of all shapes and sizes. Most of the books here were from the Wizarding World, although there was still a good selection of Muggle Literature.

After a while, Sirius came into the room. "There's no hanky-panky going on in here, is there?" he asked before laughing. Harry went as red as my hair again.

"Dumbledore will be coming for dinner," Sirius said. "I think that he's adopted Bianca as a Great-granddaughter."

"What does that make him to me?" asked Hermione. "Because I think that in the future when I do get married, I'd like him to do the ceremony."

"What is it with people mentioning sex and marriage today?" asked Harry.

"Well, by your age, I'd gone all the way at least twice," Sirius replied seriously. "There were a lot fewer pregnancy scares than you'd think. I think that some people inflate my reputation."

"Nobody needs to now that, Sirius," Harry said, frustrated with the Too Much Information. "Except this girlfriend that Mrs Granger claims that you have."

"She's coming over, too," said Sirius. "She'll be coming for dinner as well. She's an Auror from Wales named Gwendolen Morgan. Very lovely girl. Bright, and very pretty."

\\\/

A little while later, we went downstairs to find that Mum had made enough food to feed the entire neighbourhood, and enough Pudding to corrupt anybody.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. "Hello, everyone!" said Dumbledore after Sirius let him in. Less than a minute after he shut the door, another knock came at the door, this time accompanied by a woman shouting, "Sirius, come out or I'll bust down your door!"

_This must be Gwendolen_, I thought to myself. _Apparently, they share a sense of humour_

"Sirius, do you realise that Molly is in your kitchen?" asked Dumbledore.

"Of course I do, Headmaster," replied Sirius. "Emma invited Molly over, so Molly is doing what she does best."

"You don't need to call me 'Headmaster', Sirius" said Dumbledore. "I haven't been your headmaster since 1978."

"Cub, could you go to the Granger's house and tell them to come over?" Sirius said to Harry, who left the room to go next door.

All of us walked down to the dining room, where Mum was putting food on the table. Harry arrived a couple of minutes later with Emma and Bianca, and I noticed that Dan was no longer in the house.

\\\/

The fireplace lit up a couple of seconds later, and the rest of the Weasleys poured through, just as Emma was explaining that Dan had an emergency tooth surgery to perform.

"I'll set a plate aside," said Sirius, as the Twins came through.

When everyone came through, Sirius announced that he had Top Box tickets for everyone.

"Who's going?" asked Dad.

"I got enough tickets for your whole family, the Grangers, me, Harry and Remus," stated Sirius. "And if they've got a problem with that, they can kiss my"

Sirius was cut off by multiple calls of "Sirius!" before he could finish his sentence.

\\\/

During pudding, Dumbledore had an announcement. "I must ask each and every one of you to keep what I am about to say a secret."

Everyone agreed, except Percy, who said, "Headmaster, Crouch has decreed that the information is highly classified until such a time as he sees fit to release it."

"Percy," Dumbledore said. "Shut up." He then turned to the rest of the table. "Eight years, I've been waiting to say that. Now, I have the unfortunate duty to tell you that the Quidditch Cup will not be played this year."

Nearly every school-aged person at the table, including myself, and also including Sirius made a sound of indignation at this proclamation.

"Instead, I am pleased to inform you that Hogwarts will host the Tri-Wizard Tournament this year."

"Sir, if there are going to be three other schools here, why not just have Quidditch in between events?" asked Hermione. Everyone was shocked that Hermione would ask a question about Quidditch. "According to _Hogwarts: A History, _in previous tournaments, there were three events spaced from Halloween, when the 'Champions' are chosen to sometime at the end of the school year, giving plenty of time for a Quidditch Tournament."

"I will admit, I didn't think about that." said Dumbledore. "Mr Weasley? That is to say, Percival?"

"Crouch won't like it, Sir," said Percy. "A six team Quidditch Tournament? They'd be playing in some nasty weather."

"To hell with Crouch," said the Headmaster. "I'll see if Beauxbatons and Durmstrang want to send a team or two—that will be great for morale, to have an entire team to root for, instead of one person."

A/N:

The reason that Book 4 is in the first person is that I wanted to challenge myself. Not only do I not usually use the 1st person (I generally prefer the 3rd person limited, which is the same thing, except instead of saying "I" you say "Ginny"—this is what Ms Rowling used (for the most part) in the HP Books), but the main character is a girl, which I am not.

Pudding is (I think) a British term for "dessert" If anyone needs to correct me, PM me or comment

Animagus Forms:

Harry: panther

Hermione: snow leopard

Ginny: lion

Also, aside from the Diary, there will be no Horcruxes (and the diary might not even be one: In canon, Dumbledore seemed to know a lot about Horcruxes, and in this story, the Evil of the Diary is beyond even him)

I forget the fanfiction that I got the idea for the necklaces that get a person through the Anti-Muggle Charms, but IIRC it's a common enough idea in fanfiction

Please keep your reviews on topic, and please don't review just because two (or more) characters are paired together or because certain characters are not major characters (examples: H/Hr/G for the first, and Ron being mostly absent for the second). Also, please only place a review on the story that you are reviewing: i.e. don't put a review for _The Wolf and Dog_ on _Werewolves and Animaguses_ or a review for Versus special on _Werewolves _(etc.)


	2. At the Quidditch World Cup

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 2—At the Quidditch World Cup

The next day, Mum and I were back at Sirius's house, along with the Twins and Ron. Harry, Hermione, and I were telling them about how we became Animaguses.

"I always thought that it was Animaguses," I replied. Everyone turned to Hermione.

"Well, according to Latin spelling rules, from which the word is derived, it should be Animagi," she said. "But most wizards in the last couple centuries have been too lazy to study actual Latin, so the accepted plural is 'Animaguses.' It's just like in America: for years, the accepted past tense of sneak was 'sneaked,' but in the last century, the Americans (and maybe the Canadians) decided that it didn't fit, so they started saying 'snuck', which is not proper English at all."

At dinner, Sirius was encouraging Mum to have everyone stay at his house. "Come on, Molly," he said. "This house is bigger than yours, so there wouldn't be a problem housing everyone. Why don't you just take your family with you after the Game?"

"I'll talk to Arthur," she said. At that very moment, Dumbledore walked in.

"They've agreed," said the Headmaster. "The other headmasters, I mean. Each of the schools is going to bring two Quidditch teams, an 'A' team, with the best players, and a 'B' team with second-best. This leads into what I was just discussing with the Minister."

He paused for a moment to fill his plate with Mum's excellent food. Everyone was staring at the Headmaster, wishing for him to hurry up, as we were on the edges of our seats waiting for him to tell us part 2.

"Due to the fact that there will now be eight teams, we have decided to build a second Quidditch stadium," he said to cheers. "This will allow us to use a Tournament structure similar to the Muggle Football World Cup. There will be two groups of four teams, and each team will play the other teams in their group once. The top two teams from each group will play an elimination tournament to determine the champion. Durmstrang has agreed only on the condition that their best seeker is not drawn into the same pool as Gryffindor."

"Who's their Seeker?" asked Ron.

"I don't want to spoil the surprise. I'll just say that, if all goes as planned, the final should be a _very _entertaining match," responded the Headmaster. "Just like Hogwarts has broom sponsors, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will each be flying their national brooms: _Marianne République 37_Brooms for Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang will be playing on _Svoboda (Свобода)__5_, each of which is comparable to the Nimbus 2003."

\\\/

A couple of days later, my oldest brothers came home from Romania and Egypt. Bill, who worked in Egypt for the Goblins, was wearing an earring that looked like, and probably was, a fang. He was also wearing a dragonhide jacket.

When Charlie (my brother who worked with Dragons in Romania) came in a couple minutes later, I ran to the door, and attacked him with a hug. He chuckled, knowing that he was my favourite sibling.

"Hey, there," he said. When I released the hug, he said, "It's good to see you too. But what's this I hear about you having a boyfriend? And then, what's this I hear about you having a _girlfriend_?"

He must have seen my embarrassment, because he then whispered in my ear, "I know I don't exactly swing towards women, if you get my drift, so I'll excuse you if you _are_ bi."

Mum then came in from the kitchen and said, "Don't get too comfortable, we're all going to the Blacks. They've invited us to stay until the World Cup."

Charlie had been away for so long that the news from England didn't always catch up with him. "The Blacks?" he asked. "They're allowing _us_ to come over?"

"It's just Sirius, now," said Mum. "It turns out that he didn't turn the Potters over to You-Know-Who nor did he kill Peter Pettigrew. It seems as though Pettigrew was the real traitor."

"Isn't the house a bit dark?" asked Bill with a hopeful tone in his voice. Dark meant curse-breaking, and Goblin-made items to be returned to Gringotts. He always told me that the Goblins had a different view of object ownership than the Humans.

"No, he's bought a house in a Muggle neighbourhood," said Mum. "He did use a couple of charms to ward the place, and it is much bigger on the inside. Minerva nearly fainted when she saw the spellwork that house had on it."

"Oh, that's nice," said Bill, sounding like he didn't mean that at all. I could tell that he was hoping to see the infamous Black Manor, which was located somewhere in London. There was a Fidelius or some other type of charm that prevented anyone other than a Black from finding where it was.

We took the Floo to Padfoot's Cabin, which naturally was a misnomer, since it could hold five of The Burrow inside, and still have room. When we got there, my brothers had a look around. "Holy Mother of Merlin!" they exclaimed. "It's at least twice as big on the inside!"

Every female in the room exclaimed, "Boys!"

\\\/

"I'm moving back to England," announced Bill at Dinner. "Gringotts is transferring me. Apparently, they think that something big is going to happen, and they want the best of us here. I needn't tell you that what I've just told you is extremely sensitive, and if it gets repeated, I lose my job with _extreme _prejudice."

The table was abuzz about that information. Bill continued, giving a patronising look at Percy saying, "It doesn't help that I might want to stick around for the event that is 'classified information until the ministry sees fit to release it,' either"

"There's no need to keep that confidential any longer, William," said Percy, one of the only people who used Bill's full first name, the other being Professor Dumbledore. Percy looked extremely put-out, as though he'd been relishing the idea of being able to know something the rest of the family didn't. "The Headmaster has already seen fit to release the information to this family, and has even made a modification at their suggestion."

\\\/

The World Cup was drawing closer. Mum was still going over to the Black/Granger residence every day to see Bianca (whom she'd already adopted as an honorary Weasley and honorary granddaughter), so I got to see quite a bit of Harry and Hermione. Bianca was growing very rapidly. We were sure that by Christmas, she'd either say a word, use magic, or both. I bet in 10 galleons on Both.

When it came time for the World Cup, mum went to the Grangers' to watch Bianca, and everyone else got a Portkey to Diagon Alley, where we would pick up another Portkey to the stadium.

Sirius had an icebox and a couple of tents, which each had a full kitchen and 2 ½ baths.

"You here for the Portkey, Mi'Lord Black?" asked Tom, the Bartender of the Leaky Cauldron. Every couple of years, the rumours would float around saying that Tom was barely a wizard, almost a Squib, and that he used some type of Anti-Ageing Potion.

"Yes, Tom," said Sirius. "And how many times have I told you not to call me that!"

"All right, then, young Black sir. It's that kettle over there. Unfortunately, it was charmed by some lunatic as it keeps shouting about my pots being black." said the barman. "It should go off in about 5 minutes, 20 seconds."

There was already a large group of people standing around a very large kettle. "Oh, I think you're the last," said one of the men in the group.

Five minutes later (although it seemed longer—a couple of the guys in the group smelled like they hadn't bathed in days), I felt the pull of the Portkey dropping me at the site of the World Cup.

When he landed, Dad said, "Welcome to the 1994 Quidditch World Cup!"

\\\/

"Arthur, you ain't on duty?" asked one of the workers. "We been here all night. Now, move out the way, as we've a big party outta Germany in a minute. You go 400 metres that way, and the manager's called Roberts."

"Thanks, Basil," replied dad as we headed in the direction Basil indicated. It didn't take us long to find Mr Roberts, who was clearly a Muggle.

"Are you Mr Roberts?" asked Sirius.

"That'll be me," said the Muggle. "Name, please," he asked in a tone that reminded my of the Goblins only a bit friendlier.

"Black," said Sirius.

"Black, Black, oh, yes, I see," said the manager. "Booked a couple of weeks ago? Two tents and paying in advance?"

"That's right," Sirius said, fishing a Muggle wallet from his pants and handing over £100.

"Lots of foreigners here," said the Muggle. I couldn't tell whether this was supposed to be disrespectful or not. "Strange bunch of people. A couple of people a couple minutes ago tried to pay me with coins the size of a coconut."

"Really?" asked Sirius, clearly alarmed.

"It's like back in the 60s, all them partiers—I was at Woodstock back in '69," said the man. "That was tame compared to this. It's like a rally or something, and everyone seems to know each other."

Another Ministry Wizard came by and took out his wand and shouted, "_Obliviate!"_ at Mr Roberts.

The Wizard turned to Sirius and Dad, "The man needs a dozen Memory Charms a day—it doesn't help that no one is taking the proper precautions."

"Here's your change," said Mr Roberts, handing the £100 back. "And here's your map. Have a nice day." He said all this with a rather dreamy look on his face.

"He'll be all right," said Sirius once we got farther into the field. "People who are Obliviated usually take a couple hours for their brains to fully start up."

\\\/

It took us a couple of minutes to get to our tent. We could definitely tell once we'd entered the field proper, as there were tents everywhere, witches and wizards from all reaches of the globe, all different shapes, sizes, and colours. Within ten minutes, we were at our spot. There was a tent already there, Black with white text saying, "Black".

"Here is our home for the World Cup," said Sirius brightly. This confused the Grangers, because nobody seemed to remember to tell them about Wizarding tents. We set up our two tents, and walked in.

Dad and Sirius were watching as the Grangers walked in, walked back out, and around the tent and re-entered. "It's bigger on the inside!" they chorused as Dad and Sirius were mouthing the same words.

"It is?" asked Sirius. "I hadn't noticed."

I found out from Harry later that the deception on the size of the tent was because Dan had introduced Sirius to a television programme called _Doctor Who_, and this was a common reaction when someone entered his vehicle, which was Bigger on the Inside.

All the Muggle-borns or raised laughed at Sirius's statement.

The tents were all fairly sizeable. The Grangers would get one tent, the guys one, and Hermione and I would share a tent.

"We can do just like at school," Hermione whispered, causing me to giggle.

\\\/

A couple of hours later, Gwendolen showed up, as Sirius had bought her a ticket, too. She would be sharing the girl's tent with us, but fortunately, there was enough space.

The next morning, we all got up early to take in the festivities surrounding the World Cup. Unfortunately, due to Gamp's Law of Transfiguration, we had to go get water ourselves, so Harry, Hermione, and I took a map and made our way to the water pump.

Other families were beginning to wake up. This was a new experience for all of us, as I'd never been around too many other wizards that hadn't been family, and Harry and Hermione had never been around this many Wizarding children before.

There was one child outside of his tent, poking a slug in the grass with a wand. A couple of seconds later, the mother emerged from the tent and confiscated the wand. "How many times do I have to tell you not to take Daddy's wand?"

A couple of tents down, there were a pair of young witches riding toy brooms, skimming over the grass. The passing ministry official was rather displeased with that.

There were witches and wizards emerging from their tent on all side. Some were trying Muggle means to start fires, others were just using their wands.

Even further up still were a group of wizards, most likely from the African Continent, who weren't speaking English, and were roasting a rabbit on their fire. Then were the Americans. Decked out in the Red, White and Blue, and flying the American Flag, was the Salem Contingent, proudly displaying a sign that read, "Salem Witches Institute, Educating Witches and Wizards since 1620." I overheard them talking about the heavy loss the Americans had suffered earlier in the tournament.

A couple of metres later, everything went green. I looked around, and everything was green, with shamrocks and leprechauns.

"Harry! Ginny! Hermione!" shouted someone. We turned around and saw Seamus Finnegan with his best friend Dean Thomas. His tent was very green.

"Do you like the decorations?" he asked in his English-inspired Irish accent. "The ministry's not too happy about them."

"Why shouldn't we show our colours?" asked Seamus's mam, who was coming out of the tent. "This is nothing compared to what the Bulgarians have on _their _tents. You'll be rooting for Ireland?"

We continued on to the Bulgarian Section, where they had posters of the same scowling man—Victor Krum, Seeker of the Bulgarian National Team, and one of the best Seekers in the world.

We soon got to the tap and we queued up. Hermione had to step out a moment because of a wizard in the queue, who was arguing with a Ministry Wizard about his clothes. Apparently, the man liked, 'a healthy breeze around [his] privates, thank you very much.'

Within a half-hour, we were walking back to our tents. On the way, we saw the former Captain of the Gryffindor team, Oliver Wood, who had just signed with Puddlemere United; Ernie MacMillan, a Hufflepuff; Cho Chang, the Seeker of the Ravenclaw team, who happened to be 0-2 against Harry and I; then we saw some people who were speaking rapid French. Apparently, they were saying something rude, because Hermione laughed and muttered to us, "They think I can't understand them."

After we got back, Sirius fed the water to the tents, which would multiply the volume of the water up to fifty times. As we were enjoying the sun, dad kept a running report of the various witches and wizards he knew as they walked past. He did this mostly for the benefit of the Grangers and for Harry and Hermione, as they wouldn't know most of the people.

Around 6:00 that evening, a huge horn went off, signalling that it was time to proceed to the stadium.

A/N:

Pudding is (I think) a British term for "dessert" If anyone needs to correct me, PM me or comment

Animagus Forms:

Harry: panther

Hermione: snow leopard

Ginny: lion

Please keep your reviews on topic, and please don't review just because two (or more) characters are paired together or because certain characters are not major characters (examples: H/Hr/G for the first, and Ron being mostly absent for the second). Also, please only place a review on the story that you are reviewing: i.e. don't put a review for _The Wolf and Dog_ on _Werewolves and Animaguses_ or a review for Versus special on _Werewolves _(etc.)


	3. Back to Hogwarts

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 3

"Was there any security at the cup?" asked Hermione. "I thought that there was loads."

We were on the _Hogwarts Express _on our way to Hogwarts. The Quidditch World Cup was great, with some of the fastest play I'd ever seen—even beyond what the Harpies (my favourite team) were capable of. Victor Krum, the Seeker for Bulgaria, had caught the Snitch when Ireland were up by 160, meaning Bulgaria lost by ten points.

I heard the Bulgarian Minister say, "Vell, ve fought brafely" after the game.

Unfortunately after the game, there had been a riot involving "former" Death Eaters or like-minded people. Also unfortunate was the fact that the Ministry hadn't been able to catch any of the suspects. After we got the Grangers out of the area, a Death Eater somehow managed to steal Harry's wand and cast the Dark Mark.

That was bad for us, because the Ministry apparently had a Taboo Curse on the spell, meaning Ministry Wizards were on the scene in seconds, nearly killing us with the number of Stunners that just barely flew over our heads. Then, some Ministry idiots accused us of casting the Mark. The idiots eventually found an elf holding Harry's wand. Quite obviously, the elf was dismissed, as it was against our laws for a non-human to carry a wand.

"According to Dad, there was plenty," I replied as I came back to the present. "That's what has Minister Longbottom so upset. The rest of the Ministry is so corrupt that there is no plan for anything like this. I wouldn't be surprised if England are suspended from FIQA for this. I read that they aren't very pleased."

FIQA was the Governing Body of International Quidditch. Their headquarters were in the Magical Section of Zurich, Switzerland. Most leagues were also accredited to them, as well. They had a zero-tolerance policy about racism and other forms of discrimination. The South African Quidditch Union had been banned for the past 46 years, and was only now getting readmitted into International Quidditch, due to some of its racial tolerance policies.

"How have your nights been?" asked Hermione. After the World Cup, I'd gone back to the Burrow, and they'd gone to Padfoot's Cabin. The previous year, Hermione and I had shared a bed at school, because I'd been having nightmares about what happened with the diary.

"Hard," I replied. "Worse thing was that I was expected to stay there all day, instead of seeing you."

"I wonder who's going to be the Defence teacher this year?" mused Harry. "And if the person will be any good."

"Remember what Lupin said?" asked Hermione, not waiting for an answer. "He said, '_I have it on good authority that you will have an excellent defence teacher next year.' _It has to be someone he likes or admires."

\\\/

It was raining Kneazles and Crups outside by the time we got to Hogsmeade Station. By the time we got to the castle, we were all soaked. Peeves, the poltergeist, decided to make us even wetter by dropping water balloons on us. After McGonagall slipped and nearly choked Hermione to right herself, she put a stop to it and yelled at Peeves. She then cast a drying charm on the Great Hall.

Soon, the first years were all sorted, and Dumbledore spouted his usual pre-feast nonsense (this year "Legolas! Gandalf! Bilbo Baggins!"). After the food appeared, I asked Hermione, who said that they were names from a famous Muggle fantasy series called _Lord of the Rings_.

"Though technically, Biblo wasn't in too much of _Lord of the Rings;_ he was in _The Hobbit,"_ continued Hermione. "The description of Gandalf in the books is quite similar to the Headmaster, though."

After the food was gone, the Headmaster gave his usual speech.

"It is my solemn duty to announce that the Inter-House Quidditch Championship will not be played this year," the Headmaster stated, to the boos of everyone in the Great Hall. "Instead, two events will replace it this year. The Headmasters of the European Schools—Beauxbatons, Hogwarts, and Durmstrang, have decided to attempt a revival of the Triwizard Tournament."

This elicited cheers from the Students. "Due to the Triwizard Tournament, there will be more students at Hogwarts than usual," continued the Headmaster. "This leads in to the second event occurring this year. Because of the Triwizard Tournament, Hogwarts will also host the First ever Tri-School Quidditch Cup, which will be played between the four teams of Hogwarts, and two teams each from the other schools. I will tell you more"

The Headmaster was interrupted as the doors to the Great Hall flew open with a Bang, and in walked one of the most scarred people I'd ever seen. Most in the Wizarding World would recognise the face of one of the best Aurors in history. The man, now walking to the Head Table, had filled half the cells of Azkaban with various Death Eaters and other Dark Wizards.

"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Alastor Moody," said Dumbledore, to a smattering of applause. Everyone seemed in shock about two things. First, the man's face was so scary looking. Second, the Wizard children knew that this man was one of the most (if not _The Most)_ paranoid men on the planet.

_**Dad had to help him out this morning, **_I told Harry and Hermione. **_He set his dustbins off at someone._**

_**Really?**_Asked Hermione. _**That's odd.**_

_**Diggory said that there was a 'disturbance' at Moody's house, **_I replied. **_Dad and Amos think that he thought someone was trying to harm him, so he set the dustbins on them. His paranoia got him fired, 5-10 years ago._**

_**I don't like him, **_Harry thought. **_He may be one of the best Aurors in the World, but I think that something is off about him. We need to keep a close eye on him._**

\\\/

"Are you going to enter, Scarhead?" called an unpleasant voice the next morning at breakfast. "Or is one of your Mudblood blood-traitor whores going to do it for you?"

Draco Malfoy had shown up.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that type of language, cousin," said Harry.

"You foul little Blood-Traitor! I'll kill you for sending my father to prison!"

"Your father did that himself," said Harry, turning his back. That ended up being a bad move, because Malfoy said something like "S_ectumsepra" _at Harry, and I instinctively went to block it. The curse hit me like a slash, and I felt deep cuts appearing all over my body. As I started to pass out, I saw McGonagall and Snape rushing towards me and Malfoy.

What I heard next surprised me. Snape was shouting at Draco, "100 points from Slytherin for an unprovoked attack!" and McGonagall was shouting, "A month's detention and..."

\\\/

Sometime later, I woke up in Hospital. Harry and Hermione were at my side, and McGonagall and Snape were in front of me.

"How are you feeling, Miss Weasley?" asked McGonagall.

"I feel like I got run over by a hippogriff," I replied. "What was that spell?"

"It was a spell that I designed while I was in school," Snape replied. "I do regret the fact that somehow, my notes found their way into the elder Mr Malfoy's hands, and that he taught his son how to do the curse. I knew Mr Malfoy through our, um, former means of employment."

He paused for a minute, while rubbing his forearm. I knew from Dad that Snape had turned spy at the end of the War, and had been vouched for by Dumbledore.

"Fortunately for you, Miss Weasley, I developed a counter-curse, which was immediately applied," said Snape. "I was rushing over to take points from you lot when he cast that curse. If I hadn't acted when I did, the curse, even in the hands of young Mr Malfoy, could have been fatal, and Draco would be receiving the Dementor's Kiss."

I was let out of the Hospital Wing later that night. Naturally, Mme Pomfrey wanted me to stay longer, but I felt fine, so I released myself to Hermione's custody. As I was leaving, I noticed a plaque on one bed that said "Potter".

\\\/

We soon learned that it was a very good idea that we didn't take Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid had been promoted to "Professor" last year, and this year, had "obtained" creatures that he called 'Blast-Ended Skrewts' which were horrible creatures with explosive back ends, stingers, and suckers. A couple of our classmates had already been sent to the Hospital Wing for various stings or burns.

Unfortunately, Malfoy wasn't one of them.

\\\/

A couple of days after the attempt on my life, we had our first Defence lesson.

"You've had a number of teachers in this subject, some better than others," said Moody. "That Auror a couple of years back did a decent job, and Lupin gave you a good grounding in Creatures, but you're behind—very behind—on curses. I have one year to teach you before I go back to my so-called happy retirement, blast Dumbledore if he asks me again."

It seemed like he liked his retirement about as much as a Bludger in face. It seemed, from all the stories, that he was definitely a man who liked action rather than sitting behind a desk.

"There are some curses that the Ministry doesn't want me to show you yet, but I think you're ready. There are three curses that are punished more heavily than any others under Ministry law. What are they?"

Malfoy, Neville, and Hermione each were holding up their hands. "Malfoy?" asked Moody with distaste in his voice.

"There's the _Imperious_ Curse," said Malfoy smugly, as his father had used that curse to get out of punishment for being a Death Eater.

"Right," said Moody. "That gave the Ministry a rather hard time." He took a spider from a jar and cast the curse on it. The spider started doing movements on its own.

"Complete control," said Moody after the demonstration. "After the Dark Lord fell, there were many witches and wizards who claimed to only be doing You-Know-Who's bidding under the Curse. It can be fought, though. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

He nearly screamed the last two words. "Another one? Longbottom?"

Neville muttered something in response. "What did you say, Longbottom?" asked Moody.

"The Cruciatus Curse," Neville responded, still very quiet.

"Yes, that's a nasty one." He took out the spider. He put a face of complete hatred on his face and screamed, "_Crucio!"_ The spider started shrieking in pain, and Neville started to almost be sick.

"Stop it!" yelled Hermione, not caring about the amount of points she could lose by doing such a thing."

"The final curse, perhaps, Ms Granger?"

Hermione whispered, "The _Avada Kedavra _curse."

"Yes, the Killing Curse," Moody said. He pointed his wand at the spider and yelled, "_Avada Kedavra!" _and the spider fell over, dead.

Right then, an image flashed through Hermione and Ginny's heads, presumably from Harry. It showed a man (if one could call him that) casting the curse on a beautiful ginger woman with green eyes. The wand that the man was carrying was a 34 cm wand made out of Yew.

"There's only one person known to ever have survived the Killing Curse, and he's sitting in this room." Moody was saying. "The best defence is not to be there when the curse hits. Now, these three curses require a bit of power to use. I'm sure that you could use any of the Unforgivables on me, and I wouldn't get worse than a nosebleed."

For the rest of class, we took notes, but I felt that Harry, once again, was right. I did not like Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody or his class.

\\\/

A/N: If you haven't read _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_, by Newt Scamander (ghost-written by JK Rowling), then a Kneazle is a type of magical cat, and a Crup is a magical dog. Basically, Ginny is saying that it was "raining cats and dogs"

some content is taken directly from _HP: Goblet of Fire_


	4. The Other Schools

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 4

Moody's lessons didn't get any better than the first. The next week, he announced that Dumbledore had given him permission to cast the Imperious Curse on the students, which really worried our Trio.

We watched as Moody cast the curse on our classmates. Dean gave an excellent rendition of _God Save The Queen _(the Muggle national anthem) whilst hopping around the room. Lavender imitated a squirrel (which amused the Slytherins, as I'm sure they were imagining Hermione in Lavender's place). Neville performed gymnastics that he wouldn't normally be able to do. Then, it was my turn.

"Imperio!"

_Jump on the desk, _said a voice in my head.

_Why? _I thought, as I heard _You don't want to jump on the desk_ from Harry.

_Jump on the desk_, insisted Moody's voice in my head. _Just jump on the damned desk!_

_I don't want to, _I said to the voice. "I won't jump on the desk, Professor. Better luck next time!"

"How did you do that?" asked Moody, shocked. "How the hell did you beat my curse?"

Apparently, he hadn't been able to hear Harry inside my head. After a couple of more students, he got to Hermione, and then to Harry, both of whom successfully managed to throw off the curse.

He was displeased by the end of class, and assigned us a five foot essay on CONSTANT VIGILANCE and the _Imperious _curse. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, I could tell that Hermione was already planning her 20-foot essay.

_I am not going to write twenty feet! _Hermione exclaimed.

_I suppose you'll only do 15, then, _I commented back.

That evening, we found that it was a good decision not to take divination, because certain students were simply making things up for their homework in that class.

\\\/

Over the next month, there was a flurry of activity as the professors, Filch, and the House-elves tried to make Hogwarts look its best for our international visitors, who would be arriving the day before Halloween. Filch was even more vindictive than usual, giving harsh detentions to anyone who befouled the castle. Since the punishments were generally overturned by Dumbledore or McGonagall, he then resorted to taking away points. Soon, all but Slytherin had negative points. I did find it strange that Filch seemed to like the gits in Slytherin.

I thought it was too bad that they were cleaning. I found that the dirt and other things gave the castle character.

\\\/

Each of our Core classes seemed to give us a lot more homework than usual this year. McGonagall summed it nicely one day in class.

"Your Ordinary Wizarding Examinations, usually referred to as 'OWLs' are fast approaching," she started before being interrupted by Dean.

"We don't take the OWLs until Fifth year!" he exclaimed.

"That is correct, Mr Thomas," said the Deputy Headmistress. "Do I need to remind you that you need all the preparation you can get. The Children known amongst the students as the 'Golden Trio' i.e. Mr Potter, and Misses Granger and Weasley, are the only ones who have managed to turn a hedgehog into a pincushion. Yours still cringes at the sight of a needle."

The last week of October, a notice went up on the walls.

**Triwizard Tournament**

_The Delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive at 6 O'clock on Friday, the 30th of October. Lessons will end a Half-hour early, as the students will return their things to their dormitories, and assemble in front of the Castle to watch our Guest's arrival, and to welcome them to _Hogwarts_ prior to the Feast._

_Thank you for your cooperation,_

_Professor Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts_

"Are you going to enter, Potter?" asked a drawling voice as we were going to our Transfiguration lesson. "Answer me!"

"I don't need to obey you, Malfoy," said Harry over his shoulder.

"How dare you disrespect me!" said Malfoy as Snape came around the corner. Harry spun around to face Malfoy.

"Malfoy, do you know who _I _am?" asked Harry.

"You're Harry Potter," said Malfoy with a sneer.

"You are both right and wrong on that account, cousin," said Harry. "Yes, by birthright, I am Harry Potter, Heir to the Potter Family. Through my godfather, who has adopted me as a son with a Blood Adoption, I am Harry Orion Black, Heir of the Black Family. That means that I greatly outrank you. You are just a member of a cadet branch of my family, through your mother, and my godfather's cousin. Back down before I expel your Minor Cadet Branch, the House of Malfoy, from the Blacks forever."

Harry turned around, and started to walk into McGonagall's classroom. Moody was watching the confrontation from behind Malfoy, and Harry had his wand ready to fire. Malfoy didn't notice either, and cast a spell at Harry, who quickly deflected it with a _Protego _charm.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's detention with me!" shouted Snape. "And I will have you expelled this time, Potter!"

"That's not what I saw," said Moody, who seemed to be bouncing a ferret with his wand. Malfoy was no where to be seen. _Moody must've Transfigured Malfoy into a ferret!_

"Moody!" called McGonagall's voice from down the hall. "What are you doing?"

"First, I'm having a disagreement with this Death Eater about a punishment," said Moody gruffly. "Second, I am teaching."

"Teach—Teach—is that a student?" exclaimed McGonagall. "We never use Transfiguration as a punishment at Hogwarts! Surely Albus told you that!"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody.

McGonagall untransformed Malfoy, who spat at Moody. It was only the intervention of McGonagall that kept Malfoy getting killed in a hail of curses.

"Wait until my father hears about this!" shouted the heir of the minor house of Malfoy, and secondary heir (unfortunately) to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. Because of that little fact, it would suit our purposes the best if Harry had a son with the Lady Black before he died. Otherwise, nothing would stop Malfoy from getting the Black Lordship.

"I know things about your father that would curl even your hair, Malfoy," screamed Moody. "Snape, you blithering idiot! I clearly saw Mr Potter use his wand only to shield. The points will be restored to Gryffindor and no detentions by Mr Potter will be served. However, Mr Malfoy will be receiving another week's detention with Filch or Minerva, and he should be lucky it's not more."

\\\/

Snape was disgusted that he was forced to let us out a half-hour early on the 30th. "Perhaps Mr Potter needs time to prepare for the press," he sneered as we left the room.

We went back to our Dormitory to fix our hair, and put on our best robes. We met Harry in the Common Room, and went down to the Entrance Hall. We noticed that a group of UK Quidditch players were flying in formation, trying to outdo each other, and trying to show off. Each of the teams from the British Quidditch League (including the Harpies [my favourite team] and the Cannons [Ron's favourite 'team']).

There was a dock on the lake, and a rather large landing strip set up on the grounds, and Hagrid was standing ready to direct whatever was going to land on the landing strip. At precisely six o'clock, we saw a speck on the horizon that continued to get bigger and bigger, until we could see that it looked like a five-storey house. If the cabin was large, the horses were even larger. The carriage landed on the strip, as per Hagrid's directions, and a boy jumped out, and put the stairs down. Then five more boys followed him, standing three on each side of the steps, rigidly standing at attention. It was then that I saw the biggest shoes I had ever seen step out of the carriage.

The woman who the shoes belonged to was equally huge. All of Hogwarts was exclaiming what a tall woman she was, but I think that we were used to Hagrid, for she didn't look like their was much height difference between her and Hagrid.

Dumbledore went over to great her. "Dumbledore!" she said warmly in a French accent. Dumbledore kissed the offered hand which, although it was fully extended downward, barely reached Dumbledore's shoulders.

"Madame Maxime! I hope that you are well?" said Dumbledore equally warmly.

"Yes, I am well," she said. "My steeds require, err, forceful handling."

"I assure you that our Mr Hagrid is well up to the task, madame," said Dumbledore, pointing to Hagrid.

Maxime turned to Hagrid. "Monsieur Hagrid, my horses drink only single-malt whiskey." She turned back to Dumbledore. "Has Karkaroff arrived yet?"

Just as she said that, there was a bubbling in the lake, and a whirlpool opened up in the lake. A mast emerged, and then a flag. Then came the rest of the ship. It sank an anchor as the whirlpool closed. The flag was red with a double-headed eagle on it.

Students with blood-red furs filed off the ship, following their headmaster, who walked over to the other Heads. He gave a nod to Maxime, and greeted Dumbledore with the Triple-Kiss, commonly found in cultures such as his.

Dumbledore led all of the students into the Great Hall, where two extra tables had been set up. This had been Sirius's suggestion, to lessen any charges of favouritism by the Heads of House. There were also four extra chairs at the Head Table.

As soon as the Durmstrang students entered and sat down at their table, whispers started to go around the Hall. I could instantly tell why. One of the Durmstrang students was Victor Krum.

"I had no idea he was still in school," commented Ron, as he seemed to be disappointed that the others wouldn't be sitting with the Hogwarts students. "Maybe I can get his autograph later."

As the Hogwarts and Durmstrang students all started to sit at their respective tables, the Beauxbatons remained standing until their Headmistress sat. A couple of students gave a couple of laughs at this behaviour, but where given a stern look from the Heads of House.

Then, after everyone had sat down, The Madame Longbottom, still the Acting Minister until an election could be held early next year, strolled in with an assistant. _The judges are usually the Heads of the Respective Schools, and a number of representatives from the Host Country_, Hermione told us.

After everyone sat down, Dumbledore called for attention, eventually using a _Sonorous _charm. "ATTENTION!" he bellowed. Within half-a-second, the whole hall quieted down so much that you would be able to hear a quill drop.

"Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, ghosts, and most importantly, our Guests. Hogwarts, please welcome the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang with a warm round of applause."

The hall applauded, but it was only half-there. Most students seemed not to want to applaud their competitors.

"I have great pleasure in welcoming you to Hogwarts, and I hope that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable. The Tournament will open at the end of the feast, so I will now invite you to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

As we were eating, Victor Krum came over to our table. "You there, Potter?"

"Yes?" asked Harry.

"I wish you good Quidditch tournament. We play in final." Krum replied. "Stories of your Quidditch skill have even reached Bulgaria."

He left, and a couple of minutes later, a French girl, who seemed to be drawing the attention of most of the males in the area, came over to the table.

"Are you finished with the Bouillabaisse? Our table ran out." said the girl, who seemed to think she was prettier than she was.

"Yes, here you go," said Hermione. "C'est excellent."

"Thank you" said the girl.

A/N:

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)


	5. Quidditch at Hogwarts

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 5

After the feast itself was finished, Dumbledore and the Ministry Officials brought in the Goblet of Fire and announced the new rules. The Biggest new rule was that no one under the age of 17 would be allowed to enter, and there would be an Age-Line drawn around the Goblet to enforce this. The officials also announced punitive measures for those attempting to bypass the line: the person would be suspended from participation in any or all of the activities relating to the Tournament, including the Quidditch. Also, if the student was not from Hogwarts, the student would be sent home in disgrace, with the possibility of further punishment from their home school.

There were quite a number of foreign under-aged students, which is why they came up with the rule. Fred and George told me later that they had been considering entering (they would turn 17 on 1 April), but thought better of it, for there was much Gold to be had from the Events. Bets for Gryffindor v Durmstrang A for the final match were already pouring in.

A Beauxbatons student, a cousin of Cho Chang named Wei Chang, was the first to face the wrath of the Goblet. She went past the line, put her name in, and then grew a long beard. She was sent home to Beauxbatons immediately, and was going to be in detention for quite a while, according to the rumours.

A Durmstrang student got sent home for the same reason.

\\\/

Halloween was always a fun night for me, but it was a day of horrors for Harry. It was the anniversary of the day his parents died; the anniversary of the day he went to live with Muggles.

The Halloween Feast didn't seem as grand as usual, most likely due to the fact we had the Triwizard Welcoming Feast the night before. The students were trying to eat as quickly as they could, in the hope that the Selection would be sooner, but the adults in the room were eating at their normal pace. I think that they were trying to draw out the suspense. When the teachers and guests were finished with their food, Dumbledore walked over to the Goblet, pointed his wand at it, and commanded it to make a decision.

"Goblet of Fire, We are ready!" he bellowed. "Make your Selection, I command you!"

The Goblet lit up with blue flame, and then shot a piece of paper out.

"The Durmstrang Champion is...Victor Krum!" announced the Headmaster. Most of the Hall, including a majority of the Hogwarts students, clapped for the International Quidditch star as he walked to the row of Officials and shook their hands.

The Goblet lit up again, and produced a delicate flowery piece of paper.

"The Beauxbatons Champion: Fleur Delacour!"

The males in the audience stared at her (the same girl who had asked for the bouillabaisse), mindlessly applauding as she went by. A number of the Beauxbatons students burst into tears. _What a good support group _they _are, _I thought. _That girl must be part Veela from the way the guys are looking at her._

The Goblet lit and produced a third parchment. Everyone was on the edge of their seats to see who the Hogwarts champion would be. Each of the Houses was rooting for someone from their house: Angelina was the best candidate from Gryffindor, someone I didn't know from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff Seeker Cedric Diggory, and a troll from Slytherin. Not literally a troll, of course, but who could tell the difference—they both had about the same intelligence.

"The Hogwarts Champion: Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff!" announced the Headmaster to the applause of the Hufflepuffs.

"Very good," said the Headmaster. "Your colleagues who were chosen by the Goblet will face three tasks."

The Headmaster was interrupted by the Goblet producing another name. My heart sunk, as I had a rather good idea about whose name was on that paper. Unfortunately, my prediction was correct.

"Harry Potter" called the Headmaster, and Harry walked to the front to the boos of everyone. Cheers of "You Cheat!" were being called from all corners of the room, and McGonagall looked more disappointed than I'd seen her in a while.

"QUIET" bellowed Harry with the aid of a _Sonarus _Charm. "I am the Heir Potter-Black. As such, I believe that I have the right to make a statement. I swear on my life and magic that I did not put my name in the Goblet of Fire, nor did I ask another student or other overage person or being to do it for me. So help me Almighty Merlin!"

He then repeated the oath in (rather poor) French and (rather good) German, so that the audience members who might not be fluent in English would understand. The Hall started to louden again, as those who were not fluent translated for their classmates. The room went deathly quiet again when they saw his next trick.

"_Expecto Patronum!" _he bellowed, and his Animagus form came billowing out of his wand. _He must have not been thinking about his dad, _I surmised, as Harry continued with, "Now that we've cleared up that I still have my magic, what's your decision?"

At that point I noticed that one of the judges, Barty Crouch of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, seemed to have suspiciously glazed eyes. A quick look at Ludo Bagman (Department of Magical Games and Sports) and Minister Longbottom revealed that neither of them had eyes like that.

\\\/

The Age-Line wasn't part of the Goblet's rules, so it turned out that Harry's entry was valid. According to the Headmaster, the entry was from one of Harry's pieces of homework.

_There aren't any protections against that?_ I thought. _Every student hands in homework a couple times a week, with a signature on it, and there are no protections against that?_

_He wouldn't even know if his homework had been modified, _said Hermione. _There are spells to disguise that._

We were rather suspicious of everyone, especially taking into consideration the fact that Harry had been entered, and Crouch's eyes. We decided to check the map, to see if there was anyone who wasn't supposed to be here, and then, go to Dumbledore to tell him our suspicions.

We retrieved the map, and found something very unusual. Barty Crouch was in Moody's quarters, even though we had watched him go out the Entrance. We kept a good look, and Crouch was moving all around the castle, and Moody was stationary in his quarters. Hermione and I could think of only one reason for this. Someone was using Polyjuice Potion to appear as Alastor "The Avenger" Moody. We went to Dumbledore, who got in touch with the authorities.

\\\/

The first Quidditch match of the season was soon upon us. The day before the game, there was the dedication of the new Quidditch stadium in Hogsmeade. Harry went, because he was part of the ceremony, as the stadium was being named "James Potter Stadium, Hogsmeade."

There were modified rules in effect this year, which caused much consternation from the players. First, the game would end when one team exceeded the other team's score by 500 points, and second, the matches were limited to four hours long. Naturally, if the Snitch was caught before then, the game would end as usual.

Also, to avoid any accusations of favouritism, we needed to find unbiased referees, so we got a couple of Americans. Although the majority of Americans didn't care for Quidditch (instead preferring Quadpot), there was a strong cult following that enjoyed and/or played Quidditch. I think that the US National Team might go somewhere in about 20 years, but they were consistently losers at the World Cup.

The first match was Gryffindor v Durmstrang 'B'. This was per the agreement that Durmstrang's top team would not face Gryffindor in the group stage. Simultaneously, Slytherin was playing the Beauxbatons 'B' team.

"Welcome to today's Quidditch game!" shouted Lee Jordan to the delight of everyone in the stadium. There was also someone announcing the game in Bulgarian. "Today's match—the 'B' team from visiting Durmstrang versus your Gryffindor team!"

"For Durmstrang, at Keeper, their captain Nikola Nikolov! At chaser, Alexei Yotov, Michaela Wolf, and Alexis Barta! At Beater, we have Sara Seiler and Marie Delarbre! And at Seeker, Sophie Kratzler! Fine looking team there!" announced Jordan, correctly pronouncing all of the foreign names correctly.

"And for your Gryffindor Lions!" Someone in the Stands had a lion's hat that they enchanted to roar. "In goals, the new Keeper for this year, Ron Weasley! At Chaser, the Captain, Angelina Johnson! The other Chasers: Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet! At Beater the Dynamic Duo of The Weasley twins Fred and George. And your Seeker, with a record of 7-1, Harry Potter! And today's referee, from the United States' Co-Educational Salem Witches Academy, we have Nancy Morgan!"

Since the team was fit, I was once again a reserve.

"I want a nice clean game, all of you!" said Referee Morgan. She released the balls, and the game was begun.

"Nice pass from Yotov to Wolf to Barta. Intercepted by Johnson, who passes it to Bell, to Spinnet, only Nikolov to beat: They SCORE! 10-nil to Gryffindor, 30 seconds into the game. The ball is back in play. Taken by Yotov. Wolf to Barta! Nice Bludger by Weasley, Gryffindor back in possession!"

The game was back and forth for a while, but soon, the Gryffindors were up to a 160-20 lead. I noticed Harry dive. _Had he seen the Snitch? _He hurtled towards the ground, pulling up at the last second. Kratzler wasn't so lucky as she ploughed into the pitch.

"Ooo, a good move by Potter—a Wronski feint! Krum used that move to a similar result at the World Cup this year. It's okay—she seems to be all right, just a little shaken up. Pomfrey is on the field to make sure of that. The ref whistles play-in. Johnson to Bell to Johnson to Spinnet, SHE SCORES!"

The score was soon 250-60. Durmstrang was becoming more desperate, as they were too far behind to catch the Snitch and win. They pulled to 250-100 before Gryffindor scored a couple of more times. Then Harry went into a dive.

"I don't think this is a Feint here, I think Potter sees the Snitch! He does! Harry Potter catches the Snitch—150 points to Gryffindor! They win 440-100! Now the teams gather at midfield for the handshakes. Great Game! Come back tomorrow for Ravenclaw v Beauxbatons A on this field and Hufflepuff v Durmstrang A at James Potter Stadium in Hogsmeade!"

Beauxbatons beat Slytherin to open up their Tournament. The French were a high-scoring team, who used an unusual formation—they would play their Seeker as an extra unblocked Chaser. Although this inevitability led to them giving up the Snitch catch, they were able to pile up the points. Most teams who didn't play the French often didn't have a defence for that, as their Seekers were good at only one thing—catching the Snitch.

The French had jumped out to an early 300-20 lead. For a while, it looked like it was going to be the first game to use the new rules. Then, both teams traded goals, and soon the score was 400-150 to Beauxbatons. Then, Malfoy ended the torture by catching the Snitch, meaning they only lost by 100 points.

\\\/

The most popular game the next day was Hufflepuff v Durmstrang A, and I think that was the game most of the students went to. It would be a battle of two Triwizard Champions as Victor Krum and Durmstrang took on Cedric Diggory's Hufflepuff team.

Lee Jordan was back in the Commentary Booth. "Let's Give a Warm Hogwarts welcome to today's visitors: The A Team from Durmstrang! At Keeper, Konstantin Mihailov! At Chaser, Oleh Shafarenko, Andriy Mikhnov, and Dobroslawa Kaczmarek! Beaters Anna Kierc and Izabela Milinowska! And the man who needs no introduction, at Seeker, Captain Victor Krum!"

Jordan drew out the Krum, just like Bagman had done at the World Cup.

"Now for Hufflepuff! In goals Herbert Fleet! Chasers Zacharias Smith, Jason Cadwallader, and Tasmin Applebee! Beaters Maxine O'Flaherty and Anthony Rickett! And at Seeker, one of Hogwarts Triwizard Champions: Captain Cedric Diggory! And please welcome, from Canada, Referee Abigail Gibbs!"

"The balls are up, and the game begins! Durmstrang in possession. Shafarenko to Mikhnov to Kaczmarek to Mikhnov! Mikhnov Shoots, and he scores! Hufflepuff in possession. Applebee to Smith to Cadwallader to Smith, he scores! Shafarenko takes the Quaffle. Ooh, nice Bludger from O'Flaherty to Shafarenko! He's going to be feeling that in the morning!"

Durmstrang was a well-oiled machine. They managed to beat Fleet for fifty goals over the course of the game, whilst the Hufflepuffs were only able to score fifteen.

"Oh, it looks like Diggory has spotted the Snitch! He's really pushing that broom—Hufflepuff is sponsored by Giolcach in Ireland, he's on a Beast 5—top rated broom."

"JORDAN!" shouted McGonagall. "You're being paid to commentate, not advertise brooms!"

"Sorry, Professor. Krum and Diggory are neck in neck. Diggory reaches out—it's the improbable! How about that! Diggory beats Krum to the Snitch, Hufflepuff still lose to Durmstrang 500-300. Krum and Diggory shake hands—you'd never get that at a Slytherin v Gryffindor match!"

Over in the other stadium, Beauxbatons just barely won against Ravenclaw, scoring 21 goals with their special formation to Ravenclaw's 5, with Cho eventually catching the Snitch for Ravenclaw to end the game.

The next game, unfortunately, wouldn't be until the Twins' birthday (1 April), due to the adverse weather common to Scotland from December to March.

A/N:

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: ()

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw loses to Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300


	6. The Imposter

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 6—The Imposter

_Someone was using Polyjuice Potion to appear as Alastor "The Avenger" Moody. We went to Dumbledore, who got in touch with the authorities._

Dumbledore and Madame Bones, Director of Magical Law Enforcement, decided to use me as bait, as Dad knew the real Alastor Moody. The plan was that I would go up to him and talk to him, at which point he would say the wrong thing, and the Aurors would take him down.

"Professor Moody," I said to him that Monday in the hall. "My dad has told me so much about you, how great a Auror you were, stuff like that. But Constant Vigilance means that I don't trust that you are you."

"What do you mean, little girl?" he asked gruffly.

"Well, Professor Moody, what was your nickname at the Academy."

"I was known as 'Crazy-Horse' at the Academy, a reference to some sort of person in America." the man replied.

At that point, the Aurors came out in force, dispelling their Disillusionment Charms. They were all pointing their wands at Moody. The lead was the Director herself, Madame Bones. Another of the Aurors had purple hair, and looked rather young.

"Mr Moody, and I will call you that for convenience's sake, as I do not believe that you are who you say you are," said the monocled witch. "You are under suspicion of having committed a felony. You do not have to say or do anything, but anything you do say or do can and will be used against you. Do you understand these rights that I have read you?"

'Moody' nodded before hitting one of the Aurors, knocking him down. This was Dawlish, I recognised. A tall black man, Kingsley, stunned the man masquerading as Moody. Within a couple of minutes, our suspicions of what Moody was turned out to be true, as his face started to shift.

"He's on Polyjuice," said one of the Aurors dumbly.

"No shit," said one of his colleagues, which got him a nasty look from the Director. "Sorry, ma'am. I would have thought that my colleague's statement was obvious, ma'am."

"You there," said Bones, pointing to one of the Aurors. "Get Dumbledore and his pet Potions Master. Have the Potions Master bring Veritaserum."

The Auror rushed off to complete the task.

A couple of minutes later, 'Moody' had changed into a completely different person.

One Auror exclaimed, "That's Barty Crouch, Junior! I thought he died in Azkaban."

"Obviously not," said Snape in a deadpan tone. "You wish for me to dose the suspect, ma'am?"

"Yes," said Madame Bones. "Tonks." this was directed at the witch whose hair had now gone from purple to dead red. "Go get the Minister on the Floo, but do it discretely. We don't want anything to mess this up."

Snape deposited the truth serum into the prisoner's mouth. "Who are you?" he asked in a tone I'd never heard him use, even with Sirius or Harry.

"Barty Crouch Junior" replied the man.

"How did you escape Azkaban?"

"My dad helped me," replied the prisoner in a monotone.

"As soon as the Minister gets here, arrest Crouch, Senior for Conspiracy to Escape Azkaban and Unlawful Release," said Bones.

"I switched places with my mother using the Polyjuice Potion," he continued. "Her grave on our property is empty. My father kept me under the Imperious Curse, but I fought it until my true Master came to rescue me."

"Add a charge of Unlawful Use of An Unforgivable Curse," said Bones. "And get the girl out of here!"

McGonagall escorted me to the Tower.

\\\/

**Escapee masquerades as Hogwarts Professor**

_Ministry official helped him escape_

_by Rita Kimcorn_

_Hogwarts School—In stunning news today, it was found out that Bartemius Crouch Senior assisted his son of the same name, to escape from Azkaban Prison. Kept under the Imperious Curse, Junior was allowed some freedom in his version of House-Arrest. Under questioning from the DMLE, Junior claims that he broke the Imperious Curse, placing one on his father, currently the Head of International Magical Cooperation. He then admitted to rejoining his true Master, the Dark Lord, and helping him to gain some semblance of a body._

_It was also discovered that, under You-Know-Who's orders, Junior, who by that point was masquerading as the famed paranoid ex-Auror Alastor Moody, put Mr Harry Potter's name in the Goblet of Fire, and caused him to be selected._

"_Unfortunately, the Magical Contract still applies to Mr Potter, as it was his name and magical signature on the parchment," said Ludovic Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. "From this point forward, Mr Potter has to compete or he will lose his magic."_

_The DMLE has arrested both Crouchs on various charges, including Escaping Azkaban, Conspiracy to Escape Azkaban, Use of an Unforgivable Curses. Our readers may remember that Junior was originally sent to Azkaban for the brutal torture of the Aurors Alice and Frank Longbottom, who still reside in St Mungo's to this day._

_The Acting Minster for Magic, The Dowager Lady Longbottom, Augusta Longbottom, will take Mr Crouch's place in judging the tasks._

"_My grandson tells me all about Mr Potter," said Longbottom in an interview. "I'm sure that Mr Potter knows that I will be as fair as I can be, and I wish him and all the other competitors the best of luck in the competition. I will be placing an Auror at Hogwarts to act as Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor until either Mr Moody is recovered or no longer wants the job. I also must express my concerns about how this was able to happen. New security measures will go into place at Azkaban once our questioning of the two suspects is complete. Also, a complete investigation on how a Senior Ministry Official was able to do this is underway."_

_Even though we asked, the Acting Minister was unable or unwilling to share any details about the new security. "That would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it. I'm not going to put new security in place so that people can figure how to break it. That's stupid."_

The article, as usual, was mostly fair. With Malfoy and Minister Fudge no longer controlling the paper, there weren't as many inaccuracies in the reporting.

The young Auror with the colour changing hair was the Auror assigned to take Moody's job. The real Moody was using his own quarters, and Tonks was using another room for her office and living area.

\\\/

One day, during Potions, Colin Creevey came to get Harry. Colin was a rather annoying boy with a camera that really didn't know the definition of 'personal space' especially around his Heroes, Harry Potter, me, Hermione, Harry and Harry.

"Where are we going?" asked Harry.

"It's the Weighing Of The Wands," said Creevey. I found it odd that Harry's stalker had a name that sounded like "Creepy".

\\\/Harry's Point of View (3rd person limited)

When Harry and Creevey got to the room, Dumbledore greeted them warmly. "Thank you, Mr Creevey. Come in, Mr Potter!"

When Harry got into the room, he realised that in addition to Karkaroff and Maxime, Professors Sprout and McGonagall were there, in addition to Mr Bagman and Mr Ollivander, the man who made Harry's wand.

"Harry, good to see you," said Bagman. "Let's get this show on the road. Are you ready, Mr Ollivander?"

"Yes, thank you," Ollivander replied. He examined Krum's wand first. "This is a Gregorovitch creation, am I right? Hornbeam and Dragon heartstring, think and rigid, 27.3 centimetres, Avis!"

Krum's wand let off a blast like a gun, and produced a number of birds. "Seems to be in working order, Next?" said the Wandmaker.

"That's unusual styling," said Ollivander, taking Fleur's wand. "It's 24.1 cm, inflexible, rosewood, and the core. No, it can't be!"

"It's a hair from the head of a Veela," confirmed Fleur. "My Grandmother."

"Not something you usually find in a wand," said Ollivander. "I feel it makes for temperamental wands, but that might be because I don't have a strong connection to a Veela. But _suum cuique__!" _ He then caused a large bouquet of flowers to emerge, which he then handed to the French Champion.

"And now a couple of mine," said Ollivander. "Diggory first, if you would."

Diggory's wand (31.12 cm, Unicorn hair, ash, pleasantly springy) also passed inspection and produced a fountain of wine. Then, Ollivander turned to Harry.

"I remember this wand, well, Mr Potter," said the wand-maker. As Ollivander was examining the wand, Harry was hopeful that Ollivander wouldn't share the uniqueness of the wand.

When Harry had gone to Diagon Alley the first time, he'd met Ollivander like any other Hogwarts Schoolchild. When Harry finally found the right wand, Ollivander had said, 'Curious', and Harry had asked him why.

"I remember every wand I ever sold, Mr Potter," he had said. "Every one. It just so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather resides in your wand, gave another—just one other. It is curious that you should be destined for this wand when its brother gave you that scar."

Ollivander had gone on to say that time that The Dark Lord had done many great things—terrible, but great.

Fortunately, this time, he didn't say much of anything except for the wand's vital statistics (nearly 28 cm, holly, nice and supple, Phoenix feather).

Harry was pretty sure that he knew the Phoenix who donated the feather. If his guess was correct, the Phoenix in question was currently residing in the headmaster's office.

When the Wand Ceremony was over, a few reporters wanted to interview them and take a couple of pictures for the newspaper.

END 3rd person limited

A week before the first task, Harry received a note from Hagrid.

_Harry,_

_Come down to me hut at midnight. Come alone, and bring your cloak. I've got something you need to see._

_Hagrid_

Harry went to Hagrid's hut that night, somehow managing to sneak out of the castle. When Harry met Hagrid, they went for a walk in the Forest (first taking a detour to the Beauxbatons carriage to pick up Mme Maxime), where they found Charlie and a couple other Dragon Handlers with four very large, and very female, dragons. Dragons with eggs in their nests.

In the animal kingdom, there are few that are quite as ferocious as a mother dragon, and none more so than a mothering dragon with eggs in her nest. Charlie had taught me that before he even left Hogwarts to go to Romania to continue his studies and begin work at the Dragon Preserve.

_The First Task is Dragons! _Harry exclaimed, waking up both me and Hermione (who was in my bed with me). _I'm going to have to face a bloody dragon! _At this point, he was almost screaming.

\\\/

The next day, I sneaked up behind Cedric, the Champion from Hufflepuff.

"_Diffindo" _I said, pointing my wand at his bag. I must have cast the charm correctly, because his bag split open, spilling books and ink everywhere. He told his friends to continue on to class.

"Diggory, what happened?" I asked him. He looked at me curiously.

"My bag split, Weasley," he replied.

I lowered my voice. "Cedric, the first task is Dragons," I told him. "Harry's already found out from...Someone."

He lowered his voice to match mine. "For real? You're not joking? Your brothers are quite well known for that."

"I am not joking." I said. "Krum and Delacour already know, as well. Harry doesn't want anyone to be at a disadvantage."

"He sent you to tell me?" he asked. "Why?"

"Not exactly," I replied. "It's more he mentioned, 'I should tell Cedric,' so I took it on myself to let you know. He approves, by the way. To answer your second question, Harry acts like a mixture of all the houses. The bravery and stupidity of a Gryffindor, loyalty of a Hufflepuff, ambition of a Slytherin, and Hermione is his Ravenclaw side."

Cedric chuckled. "All right, I believe you." He raised his voice back to a normal speaking voice. "Do you think I could use _Reparo _on my bag?" he asked. "And I've told the Hufflepuffs to quit wearing those blasted badges."

"Aside from the second message, Harry likes them, and is trying to set up a partnership where badges are made for all the opponents, and the proceeds go to Charity."

"Damn Potter," Cedric muttered as he walked away, but there was no malice in his voice. I then heard another voice.

"Missy, come with me," said the voice.

A/N:

Mme. Bones' arresting the Imposter is a reference to early seasons of Border Force: Australia's Front Line, where one of the agents would say things like, "X and I will call you that because I am not satisfied that's who you really are..." etc., and the arrest warning commonly given on the show

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: ()

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw Wins over Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300


	7. The First Task

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 7—The First Task

"_Missy, come with me," said the voice._

I then recognised the voice as the real Mad-Eye Moody.

"Are you the real Moody?" I asked. "Because I don't think that you are. Prove it to me."

"I was nicknamed 'Avenger' in the Academy, until '79, when I had a little run-in with the Lestranges, and became 'Mad-Eye.'" As far as I knew, this information was correct, so I followed him.

"Even with my eye, I don't like you behind me," he grumbled.

"Even with your eye, I still have a split-second head start if you are an imposter and tried to do anything," I replied.

"I like the way you think, girl. As much as I hate to say it, my imposter taught you well. Could have been great, if he hadn't turned to the Dark Side during the War."

"Most of it was your book, actually," I said. "After the fraud got arrested my second year, the Auror replacement used your book: _Basic Defensive Theory or How Not to Get Yourself Killed, a Defensive Primer for Second Year Students._"

"Well, good," said Moody as we entered his office. "So, Potter knows about the Dragons, huh?"

"Yes, someone showed him where they were being kept," I replied.

"Probably Hagrid—he loves Dragons if you didn't know," said the Auror.

I did know how much Hagrid liked Dragons. In my first year, he'd managed to win a dragon egg in a game of cards, and hatched it. My brother Charlie had to help us out of that situation.

"Now, if my imposter and I have anything to agree on," continued Moody. "We'd both say that Potter should stick to his strengths."

"But he's only allowed a wand," I replied.

"What he needs to do is come up with a way, using the wand, to obtain what he needs," said Moody. "What Potter needs to do is find a charm that will allow him to obtain something that plays to his strengths."

"Thank you, professor," I said. "But can't you get in trouble for this?"

"Don't call me professor. I ain't taught you, have I?" said Moody. "But to answer the question, cheating has been a traditional part of the Tournament since it was started. Dumbledore is all goody-goody and thinks that he can eliminate it, but most people choose the easiest method to succeed at a task."

\\\/

"You were talking to Moody?" asked Hermione later when I told her. "He was helping you? Are you sure that he was real?"

"Yes, it was the real Moody, and he suggested that Harry play to his strengths, and that he use his wand to obtain something that plays to his strengths," I replied before the Lumos charm lit above my head. "A summoning Charm. Mad-Eye wants Harry to Summon something."

"On what, though?" asked Hermione. We had a week to figure it out.

Fortunately, with two extremely bright girls thinking about it, it only took until after dinner to come up with a solution.

"Harry, we have a plan!" we said before lowering our voices. "For the first task."

"What is it?" he asked.

"You summon your broom," said Hermione.

"And you out-fly a dragons," I finished.

"In order to do this, we will give you a refresher course on Summoning Charms," said Hermione.

\\\/

Over the next week, during our free time, we worked on Summoning Charms in unused classrooms in the school. Hermione even went to the library a lot less, though she did put her foot down about us missing classes.

By the night before the Task, Harry was able to summon objects without fail from about 2-5 metres. Unfortunately, summoning a broom from 100-200 metres away would be a lot harder.

\\\/

"Mr Potter, if you'll come with me, you need to get to the Task," said McGonagall, a while before the task started. We decided to go down to the stadium then.

When we got there, Fred and George were collecting bets on who would be the best Champion. They gave the best odds, amazingly, to Krum and Harry, followed by Diggory. It would be quite the upset if Fleur won the Task.

Harry was the last to go.

The others had done somewhat well. Fleur had attempted to charm her dragon in the eyes, which is what Padfoot said that he would have done. Unfortunately, the spell didn't last long enough, so she got some minor burns.

Cedric tried to Transfigure a rock in to a Labrador, in the hopes that the dragon would go after the Labrador and not him. This only partially works, as the dragon changed its mind partway through.

Krum did some type of charm on his dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon went berserk, and crushed half of the real eggs in the nest, causing him to receive an automatic 50-galleon fine.

Harry walked out onto the field, to the jeers of the other schools and the Slytherins, and to the cheers of the other Houses. Being Harry, his dragon was the largest and meanest dragon, a Hungarian Horntail. "_Accio Harry Potter's Comet!_" he screamed.

For a couple of seconds, he had to hide behind rocks to avoid the dragon's flames. Then, his broom neared the stadium. When it got to arm's length, he jumped on and started to use standard Quidditch diversionary tactics.

Harry managed to avoid the Horntail's breath. Bagman who was commentating, was praising Harry's abilities on a broom.

"Mr Krum, are you watching this?" he said at one point.

I could see Harry going in circles to try and confuse the dragon, and then he made a sudden dive, like he was going to try a Wronski Feint. He zoomed down to the nest, plucked out the golden egg, and flew to the judges table.

Immediately, the Dragon handlers were on the field stunning the dragon and taking it out of the stadium.

The judges raised their wands, and the scores shot out. Karkaroff gave Harry a '4', but overall, Harry got 45 points, which tied him for the lead.

\\\/

There was a massive party in the Common Room that night, with the elves again supplying vast quantities of food and drink for "Mr Harry Potter, Sir, and Mr Harry Potter, Sir's Friends".

"Open it," called the chant from our classmates. Harry complied.

A horrible screeching noise was heard when he opened it, so he quickly closed it.

"That has to mean something, though," said Hermione as we went up to bed. "It can't just be screaming."

"Well, to me, it sounds like Percy in the shower," I said. "Maybe we have to do something to him."

"I'll have to go to the library to research," said Hermione.

\\\/

The next morning, the headline was _Youngest Champion wins First Task at Triwizard Tournament_

_Mr Harry James Potter, 14, of London, was the quickest Champion to complete the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament yesterday. The goal was to get past a dragon to get a golden egg, which contains a clue that will be instrumental for the Second Task, being held in February._

_Not only did the Champions have to get past a dragon, but they had to get past a _nesting_ dragon, which wizard worth their salt knows is a lot more dangerous and vicious. Potter got the Hungarian Horntail, which is an even more dangerous and vicious dragon than usual._

"_I was given the advice to play to my strengths," Potter said in an Interview on WizardSports Wireless after the game. "Since one of the things I am best at is flying, I decided to Summon my broom, because if you may recall, I was only allowed to bring a wand. As soon as I got my broom, I used standard Quidditch diversionary tactics, and I am pleased that my efforts succeeded as well as they did. I'd also like to congratulate my fellow champions on their excellent performances, and I would like to point out that I simply tied with Mr Diggory."_

_Diggory, 17 __of Hufflepuff House, is the son of Mr Amos Diggory, a worker at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. "__Mr Potter is one of the toughest [challenges] I've met in a match. He's a good flyer, and if Madame Pomfrey hadn't been patching me up, I would've been watching." said Diggory. "I thought that maybe I could get my dragon to go for the dog, but wasn't completely successful."_

_S__trangely, when interviewed on WizardSports Wireless, Mr Potter appeared to be wearing a "Support Cedric Diggory" badge. I just had to ask if he knew about the other message on the badge, and he replied that, "It's a modified badge. I'm having a run of these made for each of the Champions, that is Diggory, Delacour, Krum, and myself. The proceeds will go to a charity, likely the scholarship funds for the schools. Please contact Sirius Black or _The Daily Prophet_ for more details."_

_At only two Sickles apiece, you can own your own piece of Triwizard Tournament memorabilia. An order form is printed below._

_Mr Potter, who helped his Gryffindor team beat the B Durmstrang team earlier this year, is currently tied for first in Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, along with Miss Hermione Granger and Miss Ginevra Weasley (both of Gryffindor, and both rumoured to be very close to Mr Potter, see page 10 for a Betting Form). All three students are in the top ten in every other class, excluding Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, and Divination (which these students aren't taking)._

_Mr Diggory, the other Hogwarts Champion, whose Hufflepuff team lost to Durmstrang despite Diggory miraculously beating Mr Krum to the Snitch, __a Prefect, is also at the top of his classes at Hogwarts. Results for Mr Victor Krum and Miss Fleur Delacour were unavailable at press time (indeed, our response from one of the schools was "Go away before we show you what this school is known for. It's none of your business.")._

Harry was very displeased that the article focused mostly on him. He was also annoyed that, apparently, he'd been interviewed on Live Wireless.

A/N:

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: ()

15000th word of Book 4: ()

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw Wins over Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300


	8. The Yule Ball

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 8—The Yule Ball

We weren't prepared for McGonagall's next announcement. At the end of Transfiguration class one day in early December, she announced that there would be a ball on Christmas Eve.

"Due to the Mandatory attendance of the champions, any students who are 14 years of age and above as of 31 October may attend; however, a third year student or above who is under that age limit may only attend if accompanied by someone in the Fourth Year or above."

I knew that rule was to exclude me.

"This will be an opportunity to let our hair down, however, this does not mean that you will act like, to use Professor Snape's term, Dunderheads, as your actions will reflect not only on yourself, but on the Noble Names of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin and the honour of our school. You are dismissed."

The class was buzzing with excitement at the news of a Yule Ball as they started to leave. However, I was internally laughing, because I didn't think that McGonagall had _ever_ put her hair down.

"Mr Potter, Miss Granger, Miss Weasley, please stay behind a minute," said McGonagall. Once everyone else had left, she continued. "Mr Potter, unfortunately, you're relationship with these two young women is not allowed at the Yule Ball. What I suggest you do is pick one, and the other can go with someone else as 'friends'. The Headmaster would also like to know if you three are going home after the ball.

"We haven't asked," Harry admitted. "But I'm sure that Hermione and I are going to go home. Ginny is also invited after Christmas itself, if she wants."

"Very well, Mr Potter," said McGonagall. "I'm sorry about this. I truly am. I can see quite clearly the connection between the three of you."

\\\/

After dinner, we went back up to the Common Room. It was clear that Harry had something on his mind.

"Hermione, please understand that I'm not giving anyone preferential treatment here," Harry announced to us in a secluded corner of the Common Room. "Since Ginny would require an escort to attend the Ball, I plan on taking her."

Just then, Neville came up to us. "Ginny, since Harry can only take one of you, would you like to go to the Ball with me?"

"I'm sorry, Neville," I said. "Harry's just asked me. Hermione is free, though, as long as you understand that it's a friends thing and not anything else."

Neville turned to Hermione. "Hermione?"

"Yes, I'll go with you, on the condition that Ginny gets a lot of dances," Hermione said in a much better mood than I would have expected.

"Thank you," said Neville. "I was thinking about some other girls, but I then figured 'why not go with someone I'm more comfortable with?' Then I thought about who I am comfortable around, and you two were the first on my list."

He looked at us again. "You three have a Bond, don't you?"

We nodded our heads as he walked off happily. "Neville," Harry called. Neville turned around. "Don't go telling everyone, OK?"

\\\/

Later that night, I sent a letter to Mum.

_Mum,_

_Harry's asked me to the Yule Ball! I am so excited. Since Professor McGonagall said that the relationship between Harry, Hermione and me was inappropriate for this type of function, Harry had to choose between the two of us. Since I wouldn't be allowed to go if I wasn't accompanied by someone Harry's age, Harry's taking me, and Neville (Heir Longbottom, Grandson of the Minister) is taking Hermione as friends (with our permission of course)._

_The Headmaster is setting up a train so that I can come home after the Ball, but can I go to the Granger-Black households on Boxing Day? They've invited me._

_Ginny_

\\\/

"You've got to help me," said Ron a couple of days before the ball. "I haven't found a partner for the Ball."

"You may want to ask Luna," I said.

"Luna?"

"Luna Lovegood, the girl who lives a couple of hills over? My best friend until Celesta died?" I said sarcastically. "Luna Lovegood, third year Gryffindor, a bit odd."

"She's the blonde with the magazine?" he asked. "She's pretty good looking, I'll ask her."

\\\/

Due to the fact that Harry was buying my robes, I was able to get a decent set. There were of a much higher quality than the ones Mum would've bought. They were still a bit conservative compared to Parvati's (though that wasn't saying much) or Hermione's, but that was good for me.

On the 24th, we had our annual snowball fight on the grounds, until 3:30 that afternoon. That's when we had to get ready for the ball. The boys were confused that we had to go up that early.

"The Ball's not until 7:00!" exclaimed Neville.

A girl walking past, Susan Bones, niece of the Head of the DMLE, said to Neville, "You want us to look good, right?"

That caused Neville to blush, and shut up the rest of the guys.

Us girls had a lot of things to do before the ball. We had to soak in the bath, get our make-up on, do our hair, make sure that our robes looked right, amongst other things. However, in what seemed like no time at all, Hermione and I were walking down the stairs to the Common Room. Hermione was wearing a light blue dress (almost like Ravenclaw blue), while I was wearing a red dress that had black and gold trim.

All of the Gryffindors bringing Gryffindor girls were standing at the base of the stairs; even Ron (in second-hand robes that made him look awful) was waiting for Luna (who ended up wearing Canary Yellow, which she thought wasn't entirely appropriate for the Yule Ball, but perhaps a wedding).

"Milady," said Harry when he saw me. He took my hand, and we proceeded down to the Great Hall, and ended up being five minutes early.

"Champions, over here!" called McGonagall, who was wearing full Scottish Dress. The other champions managed to get there before us. Cedric was taking the Ravenclaw Seeker Cho Chang, Fleur was taking Ravenclaw Chaser Roger Davies, and Krum was taking his counterpart on Durmstrang's B team, Sophie Kratzler.

The doors flew open at exactly seven, and the Headmasters, Champions, Judges, and Partners filed into the Great Hall in procession. The High Table had been elongated to seat the extra guests: Ludovic Bagman and Dowager Lady Longbottom, were both in attendance. Also, the Champions were seated at the High Table.

When we got to the table, there wasn't any food on the plates, however, there was a menu on top of the plate, but no waiters.

_How are we supposed to order? _I thought.

_Haven't the foggiest, _replied Harry, which was reassuring.

Moments later, however, Dumbledore said "Pork Chops" in a clear tone to his menu, and Pork Chops appeared on the plate. We took that as instructions on how to order.

Harry was sitting next to Krum, so naturally, they complimented each other while they were eating.

"You fly well," said the Bulgarian Seeker. "I watch you at Quidditch and at First Task."

"Thank you. You fly very well, too. Your flying at the Cup was amazing," Harry replied. He lowered his voice. "Just between us, I was one of the people that convinced the Headmaster to hold the Quidditch tournament in addition to the Triwizard. I thought that it would be fun, and I didn't even know that a World-Class Seeker was going to show up."

"Between you and me, I convinced _my_ Headmaster to insist that our Quidditch teams couldn't play in the opening round," replied Krum with a laugh. It was unusual seeing him actually laugh. "I think it is much better match for final, I think, ja?"

Further down the table, Fleur was being a typical Frenchwoman, and complaining about England. She seemed to have already exhausted the topic of food, and was now talking about Peeves.

"And he would be expelled like that!" she said in her French accent as she banged the table for emphasis.

Her glassy-eyed partner just nodded dumbly. _The Veela must be on full-blast for Mr Davies, _I thought.

On the other side of the table, the Headmasters were talking about the various features of their schools. Dumbledore mentioned finding a room of chamberpots he had never seen before, and couldn't find since. Karkaroff was saying how Durmstrang had plenty of open land, and Maxime was talking about the ice sculptures at Beauxbatons, which were charmed never to melt.

Pudding was ordered in the same fashion as the dinner. When that was over, everybody stood, and Dumbledore waved his hands, and the tables flew to the sides of the Hall. This allowed for a large dance floor, but also allowed for a place for couples to sit and take breaks to enjoy a cold refreshment. Charms were placed over the drinks so that certain people, i.e. the Twins, couldn't 'improve' the drinks.

The Weird Sisters, the most famous Rock Band in the Wizarding world, conjured a stage, and began to play. I could tell that Harry hadn't quite done this before, because he wasn't as comfortable as he could've been, but we both had an enjoyable time.

Although I was having a good time, I was also fairly jealous of Neville, who was dancing with Hermione. Fortunately for me, we switched partners often enough. A short time later, I noticed Luna in her yellow robes.

"Hello, Ginny," she said in an airy voice—her usual. "Are you having a good time?"

"Yes," I replied. "Are you?"

"It's going well, thank you. The Wrackspurts are staying away from Ron and I," she finished. "They make your brain go all fuzzy."

Oddly enough, that was one of the most normal conversations that I'd had with Luna in quite a while. I saw Harry at the Drinks table, and we headed outside for some fresh air. Hermione excused herself from Neville and came over.

"Apparently Luna is having a good time," I mentioned. "Are you, Hermione?"

"Yes, Neville is an absolute gentleman." she replied.

"That's good. I'm having a good time with Harry, but I have been a little jealous," I replied. It was then that we heard trouble brewing. Hagrid was talking with the Beauxbatons Headmistress a little farther down the path.

"I've never met another one," he said.

_This cannot be good! _I thought, and from the looks on Harry and Hermione's faces, they were thinking the same thing as we rushed over to distract Hagrid.

"Hi, Hagrid!" we called, hoping to distract him.

"Oh, hi, Harry, Hermione, Ginny!" he said in his loud voice. "Having a good time?"

"Oh, yes!" Harry said. "Do you remember the first day that we met?"

"You was just a baby the first time we met..." Hagrid started to ramble on, and after a couple of minutes, we went back inside with the feeling that we just dodged a curse there. As we were walking back in, I accidentally stepped on a beetle and crushed one of its wings.

When we went back inside, the band was playing some older tunes, so I decided to ask Hermione to dance, and she agreed. Although there were a couple of disapproving looks from the people around us, the majority seemed not to care.

I noticed Luna again, a while later. _The Wrakspurts must be keeping away from her and Ron. Ron seems to actually be acting nice to her._

\\\/

As the ball was winding down, Cedric came over to us.

"Potter, can I have a word?" he asked.

"What do you need?" Harry asked.

"I never properly thanked you about the tip—you know from the First Task," Cedric said.

"I'm sure that you would've done the same for me," Harry replied.

"Yes, probably without the cutting charm, though," Cedric said laughing. "You know your egg, it screams when you open it, right? Take a bath with your egg to, um, mull things over. Go to the prefects bathroom on the Fifth Floor: the password is 'Pine Fresh.' See you soon, Potter. Gotta run!"

A couple of minutes later, Harry, Hermione, and I walked up to Gryffindor Tower with Neville, who gave Hermione a kiss on the hand at the Portrait Hole. Harry did the same to me (though later, he kissed me properly, as well).

When we were riding the Express back to London the next day, Hermione asked us about it.

"Well, Neville recognises that you will become the Lady of a Noble House," I said. "It's polite to do that, especially in that type of situation."

"Technically, both the Potters and Blacks are Most Ancient and Most Noble Houses," said Harry. "That doesn't change the tradition, though. I think that even Muggles do that."

Hermione looked at us with shock on her face. "How did you know that?"

"Mum taught me," I said. "She needed me to act the proper Lady, and therefore, how to react to common gestures."

"Sirius taught me," said Harry. "He wanted me to become a proper gentleman like himself."

That caused us all to start laughing, as Sirius may be many things, but a 'proper gentleman' wasn't normally one of them.

A/N:

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: ()

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw Wins over Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300


	9. Speech(es)

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 9

The front page of the newspaper the next day was stunning. I'd all but forgotten that The Dowager Countess, The Dowager Lady Longbottom was only the Acting Minister. That all changed with the headline.

_**Investigations finally over: Fudge indited on Bribery; Accepted Bribes from Malfoy, others**_

_Today the Department of Magical Law Enforcement finished their investigation into the activities of Cornelius Fudge, who was impeached by the Wizengamot, and was found guilty on multiple charges._

"_The former Minister received sizeable 'donations' and other types of bribes from Mr Malfoy (currently incarcerated for the rest of his natural life for the Attempted Murder of Lord Black, and other charges) and other 'reformed' or 'Imperioused' Death Eaters," a spokeswitch from the Ministry DMLE confirmed. "As soon as the allegations were fully revealed, Mr Fudge was immediately censured by the Wizengamot, and later impeached."_

_Although Fudge had been under investigation, he technically still was the minister up until last weekend. Mr Fudge has been sentenced by the Wizengamot to 20 counts of Perverting the Course of Justice, 20 counts of corruption, 12 counts of Felony Murder, and 12 counts of Felony Torture for a total of 96 years and a fine of 102,000 Galleons or 150 years with no fine._

_Felony murder is when, during the commission of a felony, the actions of one of the actors in the felony cause a person to die. By extension, Felony Torture involves a person or persons being tortured during the commission of another felony. In this case, the charges result from the fact that technically, Fudge and Malfoy were both committing felonies during the bribery, so the charges come from Mr Malfoy's actions during the associated time period. _

_A Spokeswizard from the Wizengamot has confirmed that The Dowager Countess, Dowager Lady Longbottom, Mrs Augusta Longbottom, who celebrated her 101st birthday this July 9, will be inaugurated as full Minister for Magic on 1 January at the Ministry Building in London. _

Almost as soon as I got done reading the article, Harry, Hermione, and I each got a note. The owl that delivered the note was very official looking, not dissimilar to Percy's owl. Except, I knew that this owl had to be from the Ministry.

I opened the note, and an invitation was written in fancy script:

_Dear Miss Ginevra Weasley,_

_You are hereby invited to the inauguration of Her Grace, the Dowager Countess, Dowager Lady Longbottom on 1 January at 13:00. Please _répondez s'il vous plaît_ by 28 December at 20:00 to the Office of Ministry Personnel._

_Formal dress will be worn._

_Sincerely with Holiday Greetings, _

_Rufus Sykes, _

_Director, Department of Magical Events_

I immediately sent back my reply accepting the invitations for the three of us.

Soon, we were pulling into King's Cross Station, where I gave Hermione and Harry each a large hug and kiss as we got off the platform.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said.

\\\/

The next day, we took the Floo over to Padfoot's Cabin, where we were immediately greeted by the Grangers, Sirius, and Harry.

Mum, as was her custom, went over to talk with Emma, who was holding Bianca.

"Has she started to talk yet?" asked Mum. "I think that Ginny started to talk at about nine months."

"Not yet," said Emma, handing Bianca to me. "Hermione started to talk right about eight months, and I think that she actually used magic once or twice then, too, although we didn't know it, of course."

Emma turned to me. "You should read her a book; she seems to enjoy that."

I took Bianca up to the library, where there was a section of children's books that was cut off from the other parts of the library. The others followed me.

"I wonder how much like me she's going to be," Hermione was saying right as a book nearly hit me on the head.

"Who did that?" I asked. No-one answered. There was a giggle from Bianca as the book nearly hit me in the head again.

"Book!" said a childish voice. It took me a second to register that it was Bianca. "Book! Book!"

I turned to Hermione. "She's already performing magic, and her first word is 'Book.' I think that she will be exactly like you."

By the end of the week, Bianca's repertoire had expanded to include 'My-nee', 'Gin', 'read' and 'gen'. The last one I took to mean 'again' as she only said it at the end of a book (most often at the end of her favourite books, _Lily Potter and the Three Bears, Lily Potter and the Dark Wizard, Harry Potter and the Evil Family_ and _Lily Potter: The Brave Witch who Saved Us All). _She didn't seem to like _James Potter and the Greasy Git __(_a book about the adventures James Potter had pranking Snape) or _Hop on James_quite as much, though.

Needless to say, these books were all custom made by Padfoot, Inc. ("Purveyors of Books and Prank Material for all ages of Witch and Wizard, specialising in the _Potter_ line of books"). I also would like to mention that the books were the only products so far, although rumour had it that a certain set of twins was collaborating with him to start the design process of the others.

\\\/

The day of the inauguration arrived very quickly. I put on my dress robes from the Yule Ball, except that I had to put my Family Patches on them. Weasley, of course, went on my right sleeve, with a single gold stripe, Potter went on my left sleeve with a single blue stripe, and Black went under that with a blue stripe.

Apparently, the gold was because I was the youngest member of the mainline Weasleys, and the blue was because I was connected with the Heir Potter-Black. It would change to silver for the House that I married in to.

Harry was wearing magnificent robes that were almost Malfoy-esque. On his robes, both the Potter and the Black Patches were on his right sleeve (a symbol of being born into the family), with three gold stripes each.

"Unfortunately, Gwendolen won't be able sit with us, as she's part of the Protection Detail," said Sirius as we were walking out the door.

When we got to the Ministry Entrance, we were met by a security wizard.

"Name?" grunted the Security Official.

"Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Hermione Granger, Arthur, Molly, Percival, Fred, George, Ronald, and Ginevra Weasley for the Inauguration of the Dowager Lady Longbottom."

"Potter? Yeah, right," said the wizard before looking up. "Merlin's Beard! It is you! It's really Harry Potter!"

"Yes, I am the _real_ Harry Potter, and could you keep your voice down," asked Harry. "And could you please clear us?"

The Security Wizard started waving a wand over us, and it started beeping when he scanned the twins.

"Weasley, there's some type a contraband on them boys," he said. Dad embarrassedly performed a summoning charm, and a number of candies flew out of their pockets. They were scanned again and passed. He got the tickets from his table and handed them to us.

"You must have friends in high places, Weasley," said the wizard. "Them are front row seats."

We walked into the Ministry Building, where a larger number of reporters than usual were milling about. When they noticed who was walking by, they started to shove their Quick-Quotes-Quills in his face.

"Mr Potter, what do you think of the inauguration today?"

"Mr Potter, what are your thoughts on the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Quiet!" shouted Harry, and the reporters shut up. "I will answer a few questions. I will go in order. I think that The Dowager Lady Longbottom, Augusta Longbottom, is a fair woman who will swiftly eliminate those that mean us harm. Second, I think that so far, the Triwizard is a success, with the obvious exception of my name being drawn. It is enjoyable to see the High Level of Quidditch played by the other schools. I wish the other competitors the best of luck, and hope to see Mr Krum in the Final. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I have to take my seat.

The inauguration was being held in Courtroom 1, on the lowest level, which was the only room with enough Security Enchantments and Spectator Seating for the number of people invited to the Event.

Amos Diggory, father of Cedric Diggory, was sitting right next to us.

"Hello, Amos," said Dad.

"Hello, Arthur," said Diggory. "Could they've picked a colder day for this?"

"It's better than some of the things at that Tournament," replied Dad.

Forgetting that a Triwizard Champion was sitting with hearing distance, Diggory replied, "Yes, I know. What were they thinking, the lake in February?"

\\\/

The procedure for the Inauguration of a Minister for Magic was very ritualised, most of the ceremony being unchanged since the first Minister for Magic in 1707, though rumours were that this year the oaths had changed slightly.

At precisely 13:00, Dumbledore, as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, entered the room, and banged a staff three times. "Is there any business before the Wizengamot?" he bellowed.

Amelia Bones spoke up. "Your Honour, Mr Chief Warlock, we are gathered here today for the Confirmation of our new Minister."

"Very well. Submit your Candidate!" bellowed Dumbledore. This dialogue was necessary for the Inauguration.

"Our Candidate is Her Grace, the Dowager Countess, Dowager Lady Longbottom, Augusta Longbottom," responded Bones.

"Does Her Grace, the Dowager Countess, the Dowager Lady Longbottom have enough votes of the Wizengamot?" asked Dumbledore.

"Those that haveth a 'yea' vote, raise your hands," commanded Bones. Over three-quarters of the Members raised their hands.

"Those that haveth a 'nay' vote, raise your hands," commanded Bones. A couple of hands went into the air.

"Your Honour, Chief Warlock, the Candidate has enough votes," Bones said to Dumbledore.

"Candidate, Come Forth!" commanded Dumbledore, and the doors flew open. Mrs Longbottom came in surrounded by what seemed to be a whole battalion of Aurors.

"Lady Longbottom, do you accept your nomination?" asked Dumbledore.

"I accept."

"Receiveth thou the Symbols of State!" cried Dumbledore. He presented a scroll to her. "Receiveth thou the Statute of Secrecy!"

More scrolls were handed to Dumbledore, and a heavy looking book.

"Receiveth thou The Magna Carta and the Books of the Law!"

Dumbledore was handed an orb and a staff.

"Receiveth thou the Orb of the Minister and the Staff of the Minister!"

Dumbledore was holding two small containers. He approached Madame Longbottom closer. "I anoint thee with the Holy Oil of Merlin. I anoint thee with the Holy Water of Merlin."

He put the vials down, and resumed the ceremony. "Now, please raise your right hand over the Books of Law. Do you, the Dowager Countess, the Dowager Lady Longbottom, Regent of the Lord Longbottom, solemnly swear to uphold the office of which you are about to enter?"

"I do."

"Do you swear to obey the laws of the Books in front of you, by Merlin's Holy Tradition of our land?"

"I do."

"Do you swear to defend our country against all enemies: both foreign and domestic?"

"I do."

"Do you take this oath freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion?"

"I do."

"Do you swear to well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter?"

"I do, by Merlin's name, I swear."

"Congratulations, Minister!" said Dumbledore. "May I be the first to introduce the new Minister of Magic, The Dowager Countess Lady Longbottom!"

Then, the Wizengamot members stood up, with the exception of the few that voted against her, and said, "By Merlin, I swear my allegiance" or "I promise that." A couple used the Ceremonial Latin, French, or Middle English to swear their oath. At this point, I was sure that the rumours had been true.

After the Members were finished swearing their oaths, Her Excellency, Minister Longbottom got up to give her speech. _This ought to be interesting, _I thought.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome and thank you for your support. Our society is in turmoil. To that, I say 'No More'.

"For too long, prejudices have been allowed to rule Our society. For too long, members of our society have been able to commit crimes at will, while donating money to 'charitable causes' and the Minister himself, and have avoided punishment. To that, I say 'No more.'

"For too long, the Minister for Magic has been able to throw opponents in Azkaban on the slimmest of evidence. To that, I say 'No more'.

"I have seen two wars during my lifetime, with the latest ending on 31 October 1981 with the Defeat of the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort. But the people who we allowed to kill and maim our citizenry still walk free, and have exhibited extreme amounts of control over this ministry.

"The allowances of certain segments of our society to avoid punishment for the crimes defined in this law book are over. I will not allow this type of behaviour in my Ministry. I will give the DMLE the power to investigate such cases completely. No longer will the Death Eaters be allowed to walk free and threaten the citizens of this great country.

"I will reiterate: All Death Eaters who turn themselves in will only go to Azkaban for long periods of time, up to and including life in prison, depending on their Offence. Any Death Eater caught committing a crime and resisting will die.

"The Ministry, in the sentencing of the Former Minister, Mr Fudge and his cohorts, including Mr Malfoy, Ms Umbridge, Mr Nott, Mr and Mrs Lestrange, have confiscated and collected over two million Galleons, which will be immediately earmarked for the Aurors so that they may catch the criminals who threaten our nation.

"I will reiterate: Bribery, in any form, will no longer be tolerated. The perpetrators of such crimes will be immediately arrested, and the money intended for the bribe will be confiscated for the purpose of improving our Law Enforcement Personnel.

"This country has, in the past, been considered the best country in the world. Our Muggle counterparts, for the greater part of history, ruled a large portion of the world, and we followed. Britain's strength may have faltered, we may have lost the majority of our Territories, and we are no longer looked to as an example by the world. To this, I say: 'No more!' By Merlin's name, we will become the Great Power in the world again!

"The Wizengamot has been allowed to get away with many injustices in the past. To this I say: 'No more!' By Merlin's name, our Wizengamot will be held to a higher Standard than the members of Society. Any misbehaving Member should be dealt with harshly.

"We will not conquer the rest of the world, as we did before, but we will reorganise our Society as the best, the most peaceful, the most Free in the world.

"Also, under intense interrogation of Mr Crouch Junior and Mr Malfoy, we have discovered the possible locations of Lord Voldemort, and I will be sending my Aurors to Compromise to a permanent end the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort.

"Thank you for coming, I do hope that I did not ramble on too much. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I hereby nominate Arthur Weasley as the Vice-Minister."

Her speech caused quite a stir in the Chambers. I knew that there were quite a number of Dark Supporters and 'former' Death Eaters in the audience, and they did not like certain parts of the speech at all. Other parts of the speech were cheered. I think that nearly everyone cheered when she said that the Ministry had tracked the location of Lord Voldemort. Dad nearly fainted when she announced his nomination.

"Madame Bones, do we have a Second?" asked Dumbledore.

"I second the nomination of Squire Weasley, Director of the Office of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office," said a Member, standing up. I couldn't tell who it was.

"Then I accept the nomination of Mr Weasley, Director of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office," said Dumbledore. "Are there any other nominations?"

"I nominate Pius Thicknesse," called one of the people who had voted 'nay'.

"I second that nomination," said another Member.

"I nominate Amos Diggory!" shouted the Lord Greengrass.

"I respectfully decline the nomination," said Diggory, standing up and sitting back down again.

"Very well: any other nominations? Very well." said Dumbledore.

"Members, please raise your hand to confirm Arthur Weasley as Vice-Minister," said Bones.

Most of the Members raised their hands.

"Those voting for Thickness as Vice-Minister?"

A couple Members raised their hands.

"Those voting Present?"

Another few members raised their hands. These were the Members that for one reason or another wanted to abstain from the voting, but who wanted to count towards the quorum.

"Mr Weasley, Squire of Weasley, Lord of the Burrow, Director of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, do you accept your nomination as Vice-Minister?"

"I do, Your Honour," said Dad in awe.

"Then please recite the oath of office."

"I, Arthur Weasley, Squire Weasley, Director of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support and defend the Laws of our County against all enemies: both foreign and domestic. That I bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the Office on which I am about to enter. May Merlin have mercy on my soul."

A/N:

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw Wins over Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300


	10. The Egg

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 10

_Forgetting that a Triwizard Champion was sitting with hearing distance, Diggory replied, "Yes, I know. What were they thinking, the lake in February?"_

When we got back to Hogwarts after the Christmas break, we remembered the clues given to us by both Diggorys. Of course, Cedric had said to take a bath, and Amos had mentioned the Lake. This gave us the impression that the task was going to be underwater.

"I'm going to go to the Prefects bathroom, like Cedric suggested," said Harry. "You lot don't have to come if you don't want."

"We'll go at night," I said. For some odd reason, I'd packed a swimming costume in my trunk. I also knew that Hermione had one as well.

That night, late at night, we sneaked down to the prefects bathroom under Harry's Invisibility Cloak. We had the Map with us so that we could avoid getting caught. We got to the entrance, and after checking the map to make sure no one was near, we said the password and went in.

My first reaction when seeing the Bathroom was that it would be worth becoming a Prefect just to use that Bathroom. It was lit by a candle-filled chandelier, and everything was white marble. The tub was huge with a hundred taps surrounding it. There was a painting of a mermaid in the corner.

So as to get in and out as quick as possible, we quickly turned to the taps, turning random taps on, to see what they would do. Despite the tub being so large, it took an unusually short time to fill up. We got into the tub with the egg.

"I'd try listening to it underwater, if I were you," said a voice. I looked around, and coming out of the floor was Moaning Myrtle, a ghost who usually inhabited a toilet on the first floor.

We put the egg under water and each took a deep breath. We could hear singing. We listened to the clue a couple of times, until we could remember it well enough to write down.

_Come Seek us where our voices sound, we cannot sing above the ground. And while you're searching, ponder this: We've taken what you'll sorely miss. An hour long you have to look, and to recover what we took. But past an hour, the prospect's black, Too Late, it's gone, it won't come back._

"What cannot sing above the ground?" asked Harry.

"You mean other than Percy?" I joked. "Merpeople have their own language. And Dumbledore can speak it, as well—Mum told me once."

"Come seek us where our voices sound?" asked Hermione.

"It's obviously their village," I replied. "The Merpeople are going to take something, put it in their village, and if it stays for more than an hour, it's gone."

"Ginny—what if 'what you'll sorely miss' means '_who _you'll sorely miss'?" asked Harry.

\\\/

We checked the map before leaving the Bathroom, and headed back to the Common Room. On our way, however, Filch's cat was prowling around.

_I think it smelled us, _thought Hermione.

_Let's get out of here quick, _thought Harry.

As we were leaving, Harry accidentally dropped the egg and it came open, screaming. Before we could summon the egg, Filch came by.

"Students out of bed?" he asked the air. "Or has Peeves been stealing again?"

Just when we thought it couldn't get much worse, Snape came around the corner. "What is this, Filch?"

"This here is an egg," said Filch. "One of the champions'."

"Why is it here?" asked Snape. "Is Potter out of bed again?"

"I've not caught him yet," said Filch. "I think that Peeves has been stealing again."

"Give it here," said a grumpy voice, which I immediately realised was Moody. "I'll make sure it gets back to the Champion."

"Very well," said Snape, handing over the egg. A few seconds later, Filch left as well. Once Snape and Filch were out of range, Moody spoke up again.

"Potter, is this yours?" he asked, looking directly at Harry.

"Yes," said Harry, taking off the cloak.

"If I were a regular teacher, I'd give you detentions or take points for this," Moody said. "But I would like a look at that piece of parchment you have. You'll get it back soon."

Harry handed over the map. "I'm going to tell you again, kid, Keep It Simple," said Moody. "The other champions will go for something flashy. You don't have the luxury of doing that. Whatever you do, keep it simple and you can win the Task. You and your partners have a lot of spirit, and I like that. Now get to your Common Room before I do take points."

\\\/

That weekend, we were in the library researching how to breath underwater for an hour, but were getting nowhere very quickly.

"I don't need to part the waters like Moses," complained Harry, as he flipped through a book. "Though that would be cool."

"It's too bad you can't do self-transfiguration yet," I said. "You could transfigure yourself into a shark or something."

We kept going through literally hundreds of books, and found very little. I started to think that we were over-thinking things.

"Moody said to keep it simple. What do we know that's simple?" I asked.

"There's the bubble-head charm," said Harry.

"That's way too advanced, even for us," said Hermione. "And if it failed you could be in big trouble very quickly."

"I'm sorry to overhear," said Neville walking towards us. "But are you researching methods of staying underwater?"

"Is there a Rumanian turnip or something that does that, Neville?" I asked.

"No, Ginny, not a turnip," he said. "But there is Gillyweed."

"Does it work in fresh water? At about 0 degrees?" asked Hermione.

"Well, I'd think so. There's actually some debate on the longevity, based on fresh or stored gillyweed, and the temperature and salinity factors," he replied. "I think that about 60 grams of it would last for about an hour to an hour and a half."

"Are there any side effects?"

"You gain gills and webbed feet while you are using it," said Neville. "Meaning you cannot surface until the effects wear off, otherwise you'd suffocate. It's also a bit slimy. Grandmum and I went to the ocean once and used it. It's rather cool."

It was a look that we hardly ever saw on Neville's face—he was in his element telling us about this plant. Really, Herbology was his best subject, though I had the feeling that if he were properly motivated, he could do well at Defence, as well.

"Thank you, Neville," Hermione said. "Is this hard to get?"

"No, it's available at any potions shop," he said.

"Dobby" called Harry after writing a note.

"Yes, Master The Great Harry Potter, Sir; and Master The Great Harry Potter, Sir's Wheezy and Grangy. What can Dobby do for you?"

I was trying not to laugh at Dobby's nomenclature for Harry and us, as he said the title 'The Great Harry Potter, Sir," as if were Harry's name, and simply put "Master" in front of it.

"Could you please take this letter to Sirius?" asked Harry. "It's really important."

"Of course, Master The Great Harry Potter, Sir!" said Dobby, practically wetting himself to be able to help Harry Potter. "Is there anything else that yous be needing?"

"No, thanks, Dobby." Harry replied, and Dobby popped out.

"Well that's one problem solved," I said.

\\\/

A couple of days later, we got a note inviting us to Hagrid's house. Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to see him as often, due to our conflicting schedules. He was just finishing up a lesson on Unicorns when we went down.

"These are young ones, see. You can tell because it's gold. They don't turn white until they're a couple of years old," said Hagrid to us, after his class had left. "How yer doing, Harry?"

"I'm fine, Hagrid." said Harry.

"Get yer clue worked out?" he asked.

"Yes, Hagrid," Harry replied. "I couple of days ago, in fact. You wouldn't happen to know what's in the lake, would you?"

"I don suppose that'd hurt nothing," said Hagrid. "Let's see: there's the Merpeople o'course, the Squid, the Grindylows. There's a number of type of fish down there, but the fish won't harm ye."

"Thanks, Hagrid, you're the best," said Harry.

"Yer gonna win, Harry, I know it, yer gonna win," said Hagrid as we left a little while later, after declining Hagrid's offers of 'food', which we knew to be rock-cakes that were inedible to humans.

\\\/

In Charms, we were learning the Banishment Charm, which was the exact opposite of the Summoning Charm. Due to the potential for nasty incidents, Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions to practise with. This was, in theory, a good idea, because cushions are soft and don't weigh much, but in reality, when there are students getting the charm wrong or misaimed charms, there was more contact between other students and cushions.

"Sirius said that he can have fresh gillyweed for the week before 24 February," Hermione said, having just gotten a letter from her parents. Apparently, Gwendolen and Sirius were still going strong, and Sirius was actually thinking about marrying her. In other news, Bianca was growing nicely and according to her Muggle Healer, she was within the healthy size range for a child her age. Her vocabulary had actually grown to include "Mama," "Dada", "Siri", "Paddie" (for Sirius) and "Gwennie" (for Gwendolen).

One day in Potions class, Karkaroff came by, and showed something on his arm.

"HE is coming back, Severus, you cannot deny it," Karkaroff said.

"Put it away," said Snape.

"It's never been this clear, ever since..."

"Get out, now. You would be hailed as a traitor even if He did return, Karkaroff," said Snape. "Or did you forget the little act you put on, the names you named that kept you out of Azkaban?"

"I don't know what to do, Severus!"

"You can get out and make your excuses. Leave the country. Neither side wants you now, Karkaroff."

"But you were one of us!"

"I was," Snape admitted. "But the Dark Lord was threatening someone I loved. Her child and husband, too, of course, but at the time, I didn't care for their survival. I am a spy. Dumbledore trusts me. My penance is to protect the offspring of my enemy. Now, get out."

Later that evening, we were discussing this conversation.

"I think it was obvious that they were talking about the Mark," I said to them. "I already knew that Karkaroff was a Death Eater, and named a lot of names to get out of Azkaban."

"Snape must've been a Death Eater, too" said Hermione. "But he turned spy."

"I have a feeling that I know who Snape is trying to protect," said Harry.

"Who?"

"There is one person that Snape hated more than anyone else at this school," said Harry. "Even more than Sirius, Remus, and the traitor."

"Snape is protecting you, because he thinks that's his penance?"

\\\/

_Meet me in Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks next weekend._

_Sirius_

We got that note two weeks before the Task for the weekend before the task. We quickly sent back a letter saying that we would meet him.

"Padfoot, it's great to see you," we said when he got us a table that Saturday. He pulled two boxes out of his pocket. Both items seemed to be way to large to fit in the pocket. He handed them to Harry.

"I want the girls to have what's in the left box, there," Sirius said. Harry opened the box, and there were two necklaces inside. "These are tracking necklaces. There is a spell that you have to think, not say, that will allow you to know exactly where they are, and you wand will give you directions. Do not take these off, Hermione, Ginny. You're worth way to much for that. The other box is the gillyweed. Obviously, if you were a little bit older, I'd tell you to do something just a little more impressive, but it'll do. It's actually one of the safer ways of doing this."

"Thanks, Sirius," we said, as he bought us drinks.

"By the way, Padfoot, Inc. is putting out a couple of new books: _Harry Potter and His Best Friends, Sirius Black and the Auror (_though that one is for the adults), and _The Muggleborn and the Troll._ Your Sister seems to like those books, Hermione."

He then looked like he was bursting to tell us something.

"I just asked Gwendolen to marry me!" he said. "And she said yes!"

"That's great, Sirius! Did she have brain damage?" asked Harry while Hermione and I said, "Congratulations!"

"You know, Harry, you're more like them than you think," said Sirius. "Your mum and Dad. You might be a copy of your dad in your looks and in some other ways, but in some, you remind me of your mother. Your sense of humour, is all his. The last time that I almost got married, he said the same thing."

"What happened to her?" asked Harry.

"She was killed a week later," Sirius said sadly. "Oh, she was so pretty, so much like your mum, Harry. She was smart, she was attractive, and she was rather feisty. But then, one night, the Death Eaters came around, and instead of going to the Safe House, she continued to fight. Eventually, Voldemort himself killed her. I'm worried that the same thing will happen to Gwendolen."

"Sirius, she's doing what she loves," said Hermione. "If you cannot accept that, then you aren't truly in love with her. It's a mere infatuation."

"Everything is going to be alright, Sirius," I said. "Soon the Aurors will take down You-know-who, and lock up anyone who's crazy enough to be working for him."

"Thanks, guys," he said as we finished our drinks.

As we still had a couple of hours left in our Hogsmeade visit, we decided to go to the book store, the quill shop, and the candy store to pick up a couple of things. Hermione didn't end up getting quite as many books as she usually did—she only got five this time.

Already, she had to cast an Undetectable Extension Charm on her trunk to hold her books. That charm was a fifth or sixth year charm at the minimum, and even some adults couldn't do it properly. It also happened to be one of those charms where, if something went wrong, things could go bad very quickly. I could tell that she was thinking about doing it on Harry's trunk, as well.

\\\/

Soon, it was the night before the Second Task. We were preparing for the task, looking up charms that would work underwater. At around nine o'clock, McGonagall asked me to come to her office.

I entered her office, and fell unconscious immediately.

A/N:

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

25000th word of Book 4: ()

Book 1: 17,439 words

Book 2: 20,192 words

Book 3: 17,007 words

Book 4:

total through Three Books: 54,386 words (18,128.67 words/book, 1875.38 words/chapter) (decreased from above total due to summery in Book 3) (29 Chapters)

at the end of chapter 10: 22,728 words for Book 4 (2272.8 words/chapter)

total through Four Books: 77,114 words (19,278.5 words/book, 1977.28 words/chapter)

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw Wins over Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300


	11. The Second Task

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 11

**3rd person (Harry POV)**

_Ginny entered McGonagall's office, and fell unconscious immediately._

The next morning was the day of the task. Neither Harry nor Hermione had seen Ginny since she went to McGonagall's office the night before.

Harry figured that she was his hostage. After an uneasy breakfast, Harry and Ginny went down to the lake, as the Task would start at 10:00. When they got down to the lake, there were stands set up around where the Champions would enter the water.

A couple of minutes before the task, Dumbledore put on a Sonorus Charm, and announced the task.

"Something precious has been taken from each of the Champions, and they will have one hour to retrieve the item. For Cedric Diggory, the item is Cho Chang. For Fleur Delacour, the item is her sister Gabrielle. For Victor Krum, the item is Sophie Kratzler. For Harry Potter," he paused a minute, for the cheers for Harry were the biggest, "His item is Ginevra Weasley. Good luck, champions."

At 10:00, the clock that had been installed for the purpose of the Task, chimed, and Harry ingested the gillyweed. Harry could quickly tell that he had gills, and if he wasn't mistaken, webbed feet. The water, despite it being February in Scotland, didn't feel icy any longer. Harry surged forward.

Harry took out his wand and cast the Findus Charm, which would allow him to locate Ginny easier. Fortunately, it was a non-verbal spell, so he could cast it easier underwater.

_OK, I need to adjust course 5 degrees to my right,_ he thought to himself. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Fleur being attacked by the Grindylows, and surfacing. This meant that she was out of the task.

A grindylow came at Harry, but he was ready with a non-verbal stunner, something that he had just picked up recently. As he swam closer (he was within 200 metres of Ginny now), he could hear the Merpeople singing.

"Your hours half gone, so tarry not, Lest what you seek stays here to rot" they sang.

Harry didn't think that it felt as though it had been a half-hour. Then, he saw the village. There were dwellings all around, and in the centre was a Merpeople version of a village square. In the centre of the square was a large statue of a Merperson, and there were four hostages tied to it.

"We cannot help you," said a Merperson. Harry just made a threatening gesture. He went to work untying Ginny and then Gabrielle from the statue.

"Take only your own"

_But she'll die!_ Harry thought. He made a couple of gestures threateningly at the Merpeople, and counted down. When he got to "zero" he shot hot water at them. They scattered, and he was able to pull both girls from the statue. As he did so, he noticed Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum coming. Diggory was using a Bubble-Head Charm, and Krum had done a partial transfiguration into a shark. Victor bit viciously at the ropes binding his hostage, only barely missing taking her head off. Diggory started to saw the ropes, and soon got Cho Chang free.

Soon, Harry was halfway back to the shore. It was then that he got ambushed by a large colony of grindylows, who attempted to bite and scratch him. He used his wand to disarm, then started thinking more offensive spells.

Then, he saw half of the Merpeople chasing him with spears that looked very sharp. _Uh-oh_, he thought as he attempted to swim faster. Spears started flying around him, and Harry used a propulsion charm to get closer to the Platform. Just as he was nearing the Platform, he started having trouble breathing.

_Neville wasn't joking about this stuff only working an hour, _Harry thought. With one mighty push, Harry managed to surface with the two hostages. Somehow, Cedric had already returned.

The two girls woke up as soon as their heads broke the surface. "What?" asked Ginny dumbly. Fleur came over to Harry.

"You saved my sister, even though she was not yours to save," she said with her French accent. She then kissed him on each cheek, as per a usual French greeting.

Ten minutes later, Krum surfaced with Sophie, and Dumbledore went over to the surface, and was making some odd sounds towards the water. _On second thought, that sounds like the words from the egg. _Harry thought. He then noticed Dumbledore conversing with the other judges—apparently Dumbledore was the only one that could speak the Merpeople language.

"After careful consideration, we have decided to award these points," said Dumbledore. "In fourth place, Fleur Delacour, who failed to retrieve her hostage, we award 25 points."

There was polite applause for her, as she moaned, "I deserved zero."

"In third place, successful in retrieving his hostage, but with a time of 1 hour, and 20 minutes, we award 35 points to Victor Krum."

More applause.

"In first place, successful in retrieving his hostage, with a time of Fifty-five minutes, we award 50 points to Cedric Diggory."

Hogwarts erupted. "This means that Mr Potter gets second place. However, due to the fact that he rescued not only his own hostage, but another hostage as well, we award _him_ 49 points. The next Triwizard Task will be in June, and the participants will be notified exactly a month before. The next Quidditch matches will be April 1 and 2, with Gryffindor v Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff v Beauxbatons B, Beauxbatons A v Durmstrang B, and Slytherin v Durmstrang A. Have a nice day."

\\\/

_**Harry Potter acts the Hero Again**_

_Yesterday was the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. The _Daily Prophet_ can now reveal that the egg collected at the end of the First Task contained a clue. Witnesses report that the eggs made a screeching sound when opened, causing much distress to the people around them. But it so happens that the clue was perfectly clear, if you thought to put the egg (and your ear) underwater._

_When listened to under these circumstances, the egg produces a riddle that basically states that the Merpeople have taken a hostage, and that the champion has one hour to retrieve the hostage (for the full text, please see page 2)._

_There was a hostage taken from each of the Champion—Ms Delacour's sister (whose name is being withheld), Cho Chang (girlfriend of Mr Diggory), Miss Ginevra Weasley (prominent pureblood linked to Harry Potter), and Sophie Kratzler (Yule Ball date for Mr Krum)._

_At around twenty minutes, Miss Delacour withdrew from the Task, and was unable to save her sister. Noticing this, Mr Potter, who arrived at the hostages first, decided to rescue both the younger Miss Delacour and his own hostage, Miss Weasley. This move most likely cost Potter a couple of minutes, because he came back a few minutes after the hour deadline._

_The winner of the Task was Mr Diggory, who got back with five minutes left in the hour time-limit. In recognition of his heroic efforts to save Miss Delacour, the judges awarded Potter 49 points, one fewer than Diggory._

"_Harry [Potter] is a good kid," said fellow Hogwarts Champion Cedric Diggory. "He has a sense of fair play that rivals some Hufflepuffs. Mr Potter wishes us luck often, except when he's playing us in Quidditch, of course. I am proud that he and I are so close in the standings. Despite the storybooks, I find that even when I do talk with Potter, he doesn't like talking about his past, and that he had a hard childhood before Hogwarts. I find his kindness and fair play even more remarkable when you take that into consideration."_

_Indeed, if you may recall, Mr Potter once lived with his maternal Aunt and her husband, who were magicphobes to the extreme, and told Mr Potter that his parents had died in the destruction of their Muggle vehicle._

_When we investigated, we learned that Miss Delacour is one of the top students at Beauxbatons, likely why she was Chosen by the Cup as Champion. Although we were threatened by the Headmaster of Durmstrang, interviews from the other students suggest that Mr Krum is also a top student._

_Although we are rooting for victory from one of the Hogwarts Champions (either Diggory or Potter), we wish the Champions the best of luck in the rest of the tournament. _

_The next Task is on 24 June, with the Champions being notified what it is a month in advance. The next Quidditch matches are on 1 and 2 April, followed by games the next weekend. _

_\\\/_

Far away in a mansion on the outskirts of a Muggle town, was a man and what looked to be a baby of some sort, but this baby could talk.

"What of our plans, my loyal servant?" asked the Baby, whose body was occupied by The Dark Lord Voldemort.

"Everything is proceeding as you have foreseen, my lord," said the man.

"And your cover, Dawlish?" asked Lord Voldemort.

"They have no clue that I am yours, my Lord. I have so far managed to not arouse their suspicion," said Dawlish. "They plan to have me, as their most loyal Auror, deliver the cup to its proper location before the Third Task. I will turn it into a Portkey that will bring the winner, presumably Potter, to you."

"Good. Good." said Voldemort. If any Muggles or Muggle-borns would have been listening, they would've thought that 'Lord Voldemort' was copying the Emperor from _Star Wars_, but everyone knew that Lord Voldemort hated everything Muggle.

Unfortunately for Harry, he no longer had a connection with the Dark Lord, so he wasn't able to notify anyone that there was a spy in the Auror Ranks.

\\\/

Angelina was now having Quidditch practises as often as possible to get the Gryffindors ready for their game against Ravenclaw. The Ravenclaws had a technically good team, but sometimes had problems with the execution.

The Quidditch games seemed to come quicker than they actually did. It was soon the end of March. Unfortunately for Gryffindor, Alicia Spinnet came down with a cold the week of the game, so Ginny was subbed in at Chaser.

"Welcome to today's game," said Lee Jordan from the Commentary Booth. "It's Ravenclaw v Gryffindor!"

Cheers rocked the stadium. Ravenclaw flew onto the field.

"For Ravenclaw, At Keeper #5, Grant Page. Chasers, Captain #1 Roger Davies, #4 Randolph Burrow, and #3 Jeremy Stretton. Beaters: #2 Duncan Inglebee and #6 Jason Samuels. At Seeker: #7 Cho Chang."

"And for the Gryffindor Lions! In goals, #8 Ronald Weasley! Chasers, Captain #1 Angelina Johnson, #2 Katie Bell, and Substitute #9 Ginny Weasley. At Beater #5 and #6 Fred and George Weasley! And at Seeker, with an 8-1 record, Assistant Captain #7 HARRY POTTER! Please welcome today's referee, from the Mexican Quidditch Association, the ANQM, Cecilia Pérez!"

Ginny knew that the Mexicans really liked their Quidditch—almost as much as they liked football. This was in contrast with the Canadians and the Americans, who preferred another game called 'Quadpot'.

The two captains shook hands at midfield, and the Referee, Ms Pérez threw the balls in the air to begin the game.

"Its Weasley, Johnson and Bell in a Hogsehead Formation! They shoot, and they score!"

The game was quick paced. As soon as Gryffindor would score, the Ravenclaws would answer right back. It would most likely come down to the Seekers.

"Knock her off her broom if you have to!" shouted the very recognisable voice of Oliver Wood, who was watching the game from the stands. The score was even at 300, when Harry saw the Snitch. He raced towards it, and bumped into Cho, who hadn't been paying attention. He then grabbed the Snitch out of the air, and Gryffindor won 450-300, giving them a commanding lead in the standings. Gryffindor now had two wins, compared to Ravenclaw's one win, and Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's losses.

At the other field, was the Hufflepuff v Beauxbatons match. Hufflepuff had lost their first game, despite Cedric getting the Snitch. It was another high-scoring affair. Ten minutes in, the score was 200 apiece. Twenty minutes in, the score was 400 apiece. Then, right before the hour mark, Hufflepuff, who were using the French formation against them, started to take control of the game. As was the rules, the game was called at 1100-600, two hours after the first whistle.

The next day was the Beauxbatons A v Durmstrang B match at Hogwarts, and the Durmstrang A v Slytherin game at James Potter Stadium. The games couldn't have been more different.

In the Beauxbatons match, they ran up the score. Durmstrang managed to keep the score within reach, and then, at around the thirtieth minute, Sophie Kratzler caught the Snitch. Unfortunately, the score had been 300-150 in favour of Beauxbatons, so the two teams managed to pull off a draw, each earning a point in the standings. This managed to keep them both alive, but they would need wins in their final games (v Gryffindor and Ravenclaw).

The other match wasn't so pretty. Draco Malfoy was seriously outclassed by Victor Krum in every way possible. Malfoy, whose only chance of getting to the Snitch was to tail Krum, quickly fell for a Wronski Feint. Durmstrang managed to score a couple goals, and then 10 minutes into the game, Krum was able to catch the snitch literally right from behind Malfoy's ear. Harry had noticed the Snitch from the Stands five minutes before Krum's hand snatched it from Malfoy. Malfoy had been given detention, and had just barely avoided a suspension from Quidditch, for spitting on Krum after the game.

_This shows what type of player Malfoy is,_ thought Harry. _He buys his way onto the team, and then doesn't produce. Then, when he doesn't get his way, he gets mad._

There was a quick turnaround for the Quidditch games, because the final matches of the group stage would be held the next weekend. Angelina had the Gryffindors on the field as much as she could, which meant that they had 3 hours of practise that week. That was all McGonagall would allow.

The game on 8 April at the Hogwarts Stadium was Gryffindor v the Beauxbatons A, and the game at James Potter Stadium (Hogsmeade) was Hufflepuff v Slytherin. Both were high scoring affairs. Lee Jordan would be calling the Gryffindor game (along with a French announcer), whilst the Hufflepuff match would get Gwenog Jones, from the Holyhead Harpies.

"Welcome to today's game," said Lee Jordan from the Commentary Booth. "It's visiting Beauxbatons v your Gryffindor Lions!"

Cheers rocked the stadium. Beauxbatons flew onto the field.

"For Beauxbatons, At Keeper Captain #1, Caroline Baldine. Chasers, #2 Julienne Paquin, #9 Marion Allemoz, #4 Lara Escudero and #7 Rene Lacroix, also a Seeker! At Beater #5 Mathieu Debuchy and #6 Patrice Evra!"

"And for your Gryffindor Lions! In goals, #8 Ronald Weasley! Chasers, Captain #1 Angelina Johnson, #3 Alicia Spinnet, and Substitute #9 Ginny Weasley. At Beater #5 and #6 Fred and George Weasley! And at Seeker, with a 9-1 record, Assistant Captain #7 HARRY POTTER! Please welcome today's referee, from the Mexican Quidditch Association, the ANQM, Cecilia Pérez!"

Angelina had subbed out Katie Bell, who came down with a cold, and replaced her with Alicia (who had a cold the previous game). The open Chaser slot was taken by Ginny Weasley. Before the game, Angelina had talked with Harry about how they were going to defend against the Beauxbatons formation. Harry had decided that he would play Chaser for part of the game. It wasn't his best position, but he could play it well enough, especially with his bond with Ginny.

The Captains met at midfield, and shook hands. Angelina said something to the referee, who nodded, and the two Captains took off. The referee threw the balls into the air, and the game began.

The Beauxbatons formation was odd, but easily defended with the Substitution of Harry as an extra Chaser. Harry thought that it actually felt good to be an active part of the game, but that Chasing would never be his thing.

"Potter has the Quaffle!" shouted Jordan in shock. "He passes it to Weasley, who passes it to Spinnet, a backwards Pass to Potter, nice avoidance of the Bludger there, Harry! Potter to Johnson, backpass to Weasley, SHE SHOOTS AND SHE SCORES! She gets one past Keeper Baldine! Beauxbatons quickly takes the Quaffle. Passes all around—the Quaffle is going so fast I can't see all the passes—that's what the Omnioculars are for, folks! Only Keeper Weasley to beat, LaCroix scores! Both teams are using a four Chaser formation, this is unbelievable! You just don't see this type of Quidditch here in England!

"Potter to Johnson to Spinnet to Potter, who Shoots and Scores! Beauxbatons back in possession, oh, that's a nice Bludger from Weasley, I can't tell them apart. OK, Beater #6. It's too bad it didn't work! Beauxbatons still in possession. Paquin to the Seeker Lacroix to Allemoz, who scores. Beauxbatons Allemoz puts it past Weasley. Spinnet with the Quaffle to Potter to Weasley to Johnson. Johnson fakes to the right, throws to the left, soars past the Keeper! What an entertaining game!"

The scoring went on for 3 hours and 50 minutes, at which point it was even at 1000. With ten minutes left before the game would be called, Harry reported in to the referee as Seeker, as he had just seen where the Snitch was going.

"Potter has reported in at Seeker! He's already scored 5 goals, and had an assist on the other 5! He zooms into the Beauxbatons scoring play. That's it—there's the Whistle! Harry Potter has the Snitch, and the Gryffindor Lions go 3-0 in the group stage, winning this game 1180-1030! That was a great game!"

\\\/

"Please welcome today's announcer, from the Holyhead Harpies, Gwenog Jones!" called the Stadium Announcer at James Potter Stadium.

"Thank you for inviting me here today," said Jones from the Booth. "Today's matchup: Hufflepuff v Slytherin!"

"Today for the Black and Gold: In Goals, #8 Herbert Fleet. Chasers #1 Zacharias Smith, #3 Jason Cadwallader and #4 Tasmin Applebee! Beaters: #2 Maxine O'Flaherty and #5 Anthony Rickett. And at Seeker, one of the Hogwarts Triwizard Champions, Captain #7 Cedric Diggory!

"And for the Green and Silver: In Goals, Substitute #13 Ben Bowns. At Chaser #2 Adrian Pucey, #3 Chris Warrington and #4, Captain Graham Montague. At beater #6 Vincent Crabbe and #5 Gregory Goyle. At Seeker, Assistant Captain, #7 Draco Malfoy! Today's Referee, from the United States of America, Nancy Morgan!"

"The Captains shake hands at midfield, and the game has started. Smith to Cadwallader to Applebee, only the Keeper to beat. Will the substitute work for Slytherin? Oh, they shoot it right past Bowns, 10-nil to Hufflepuff. And Applebee is smiling like a butcher's Crup! Slytherin with the Quaffle—nasty hit, that's a foul! Foul to Hufflepuff, taken by Smith, who puts it through, and you can scratch my back with a hacksaw! Slytherin in possession. Pucey to Warrington to Montague to Pucey. Puts it right past the Goalkeeper Fleet, and Fleet doesn't know whether to cry or wind his watch!"

"Hufflepuff back in possession. This is a real Quidditch game, folks. Not quite as hard-hitting as a Gryffindor v Slytherin match would be, but an excellent show of scoring prowess. Smith to Cadwallader to Applebee to Smith. Zacharias Smith scores for Hufflepuff! And Smith beats goalkeeper Bowns like a rented hippogriff! Slytherin in possession, foul by Hufflepuff #1. Warrington takes the Quaffle, and Scores! You can buy Sam a drink, and get his Crup one too!"

The game went on for another four hours before it was finally called. Both teams had managed to get 120 goals past the Keepers. The Sunday match would decide who would move on to the next stage: either Durmstrang and Hufflepuff or Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.

A/N:

Some of the Commentary is taken from Mike Lange, former TV announcer, and current radio announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL ('she smoked her...','he's smiling like a butcher's dog', 'scratch my back...'), and other NHL announcers

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

25000th word of Book 4: ()

Book 1: 17,439 words

Book 2: 20,192 words

Book 3: 17,007 words

Book 4:

total through Three Books: 54,386 words (18,128.67 words/book, 1875.38 words/chapter) (decreased from above total due to summery in Book 3) (29 Chapters)

at the end of chapter 11: 22,728+ words for Book 4 (2272.8 words/chapter)

total through Four Books: 77,114 words (19,278.5 words/book, 1977.28 words/chapter)

After one game:

Gryffindor Wins over Durmstrang B 440-100

Ravenclaw Wins over Beauxbatons A 210-200

Hufflepuff Loses to Durmstrang A 500-300

Slytherin Loses to Beauxbatons B 400-300

Game II:

Gryffindor wins over Ravenclaw: 450-300

Hufflepuff wins over Beauxbatons B: 1100-600

Beauxbatons A ties Durmstrang B: 300-300

Slytherin loses to Durmstrang A 170-0

Game III:

Gryffindor v Beauxbatons A

Ravenclaw v Durmstrang B

Hufflepuff ties Slytherin (time) 500-500

Durmstrang A beats Beauxbatons B 700-690

Championship:

Gryffindor v Hufflepuff May 6 (Game C)

B1 v A2 May 7 (Game D)

L-C L-D May 13 (Consolation Match) (Game E)

W-C W-D May 14 (Championship Match) (Game F)


	12. Easter Holidays

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 12—Easter Holidays

The next day was Sunday, 9 April, the date of the final games in the group stage. The Hogwarts pool was already decided: both Gryffindor and Beauxbatons A would be going to the Semifinals, and Ravenclaw and Durmstrang B were eliminated, with no chance of going to the next round.

_It was really stupid how they did this, _thought Hermione. _In the Muggle World Cup, the last games of the Group Stage are played simultaneously, so that teams don't know what result will suit them best._

The other group, at Hogsmeade, was a different story. If Beauxbatons B won, then they would have six points to Hufflepuff's 4 points and would be equal with Durmstrang A on points.

It would be impossible for Beauxbatons to win the group, as they would have to win by over 900 points, and the rules in effect ended games when a team was 500 up. These rules would last only until the final and third-place match, where they would return to normal Quidditch rules, with no limitations on time or score, and only ending when the Snitch was caught.

If Beauxbatons B lost, then Hufflepuff would go to the Semifinals with four points, and Durmstrang would sweep the group. Durmstrang A would play Beauxbatons A no matter what, and Gryffindor were waiting to see whether they'd play Beauxbatons B or Hufflepuff.

After the games would be a week of Holiday for Easter Break, as Easter was on 16 April (although some students heard rumours that Krum would celebrate it a week later—apparently he had religious family members from the Orthodox Church).

Both games were rather good. In the Ravenclaw match, they won by 150 points after Cho Chang caught the Snitch, her second Catch of the Tournament. Before that, each team had scored fifty goals.

_Is it just me, or are the goalkeepers lousier this year? _Ginny asked herself. _They probably want the Chasers to put on a good show. _

_I'd agree, _thought Harry back to her.

The other game was also close. Durmstrang had no answer for the Beauxbatons formation, so quickly the score had been run up. Fortunately for Krum, though, Durmstrang also managed to put up quite a number of points. At the half-hour mark, the score was 650-550 in favour of Beauxbatons. Then Krum dove. He had sighted the Snitch, and knew that if he caught it now, his team would win the game, and go 3-0-0 in the Group Stage.

"Krum completely beats the Beauxbatons Seeker, and gets the Snitch, right as the Beauxbatons team puts in another goal! Your final score is 700-660 to Durmstrang!" called the announcer.

It would be a Hogwarts v Hogwarts match in one semifinal, and Foreign School v Foreign School in the other, as Gryffindor would host Hufflepuff, and Beauxbatons A would play Durmstrang A.

\\\/

Harry and Hermione went home for the Easter holidays. Bianca, Harry's goddaughter, was growing to be so big. It was nearly her first birthday. She was learning new words on an almost daily basis.

The day after they got home, Sirius pulled Harry aside.

"Harry, in the Black family, if a male is, um, unable to reproduce, he is declared dead for the purposes of inheriting the House or keeping the Lordship," said Sirius to Harry. "That may be a problem for me."

"Why?"

"I've been to a couple of Healers on the down-low, if you know what I mean, and they think that Azkaban may have messed with my abilities to reproduce."

"Really? You're not pulling a joke on me?"

"Really. Now, if I were to be declared dead, right now, the Lordship would pass to you, as you are my heir," continued Sirius. "But the Black Law gives a male two years after becoming Lord Black to father a child."

"So what do we do?"

"You can sign a Betrothal Agreement with both of your girls' parents, and we will put in the contract that those two years start either when you've left Hogwarts or that they start two years after my actual death, whichever comes first."

"What's the catch?"

"The Lord Black has to be at least a third-generation Magical user, in other words, a 'Pureblood'. Ginny should count, despite the Weasley's status. They are a member of the Sacred 28 according to one of the books at my former residence," said Sirius. "Now, for the Lord Potter, the rules aren't quite as Strict. They give you five years after you ascend to produce an Heir—male or female, though preferably male. The Potter rules are basically the opposite for your choice of partner. Potters are encouraged to 'branch out' I believe the term is, and marry first- or second-generation magic users. Your grandmum was an exception, as she was your grandfather's cousin, and a Slytherin."

"So basically, I'm forced to have Ginny as my Lady Black, and Hermione as my Lady Potter, and both have to sign Agreements to start the clock at a more reasonable time?" asked Harry.

"Correct," said Sirius grinning at the summery.

The Weasley's had been invited over, so all the adults, plus Harry, Ginny and Hermione, were sitting at the dining room table, which was the longest table in the house.

"Betrothal Agreements?" asked Dan Granger, clearly out of his regular comfort zone. "I knew that we were getting into some strange things when McGonagall showed up on our doorstep. But Betrothal Agreements? Isn't that a bit 18th century?"

"You'll find that most of the Wizarding World hasn't progressed much since the mid-19th century," explained Sirius.

"Will they be married after signing these?" asked Emma.

"It is less than a marriage, but more than an engagement," said Sirius. "Your house will forever be connected with the House of Potter, and the Weasley-Prewett House will forever be connected with the House of Black."

"It's a bit daunting, isn't it, Emma and Dan?" asked Molly kindly. "My parents set up a betrothal between Arthur and me, but only after we had fallen in love. Bill then quickened the terms of the Contract, if you take my meaning."

This did not seem to be as comforting to Emma as Molly had hoped it would be. Everyone looked at the contracts for a couple minutes more.

"I'm sorry about all the legal mumbo-jumbo in there, it's required," said Sirius, as Dumbledore came through the Floo.

"Unfortunately, there is some legal mumbo-jumbo that I have to do as well," said Dumbledore. "As I am the Chief Wizard of the Wizengamot, I am authorised to Witness many things, including betrothals, births, and weddings."

The Headmaster gave the Trio a wink, as if he knew what they'd seen in the Mirror of Erised those many years ago. _He probably did,_ thought Ginny.

\\\/Flashback to Christmas, Ginny/Harry/Hermione's First year

Ginny stepped in front of the mirror. She saw Harry in dress robes, and her and Hermione in white dresses in front of an audience. There was a ministry official—no, now that she looked properly, it was Dumbledore standing in front of the three of them, holding a book, and looking happier than he'd ever looked. Ginny saw that her mother was crying her eyes out, along with a mini-Hermione, sitting right next to her in the lap of an older version of Hermione. Ginny supposed that this was Hermione's mum and sister.

It was a happy scene; she could immediately tell the setting, a wedding—more specifically, _her_ wedding. It was a happy scene; there were no threats from Death Eaters or You-Know-Who...Voldemort, no threats from Voldemort.

\\\/ End Flashback

"Mr Harry Potter, as the Heir Potter, do you take this contract freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?" asked Dumbledore.

"I do." said Harry.

"Mr Sirius Black, as the Interim Lord Potter, do you consent to this contract freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do," said Sirius.

"Being Muggles, you must know Mr and Mrs Granger, that this is not a marriage today," said Dumbledore. "This is a Contract between two parties that happens to include marriage. Miss Hermione Granger, as the contracted partner, do you take this contract freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do," responded Hermione.

"Mr Granger, as father of the Contracted, and Head of the Muggle House Granger, Friend of the Black Family, given what I have already told you, do you consent to this contract freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do," answered Dan.

"Congratulations, Mr Potter and Miss Granger are now Betrothed." Dumbledore turned to Harry again. "Ready for Round two? This will be more difficult." he asked. "Mr Harry Potter, as the Heir Black, do you take your Contract with this woman freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do," said Harry again.

"Mr Sirius Black, do you consent to this contract between this man and this woman freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do," said Sirius again.

"In the Beginning, there was Black. The Blacks descended from the Greatest of all Families, and strive to maintain this Greatness. Miss Weasley, do you consent to have your magic tested?"

"I do," said Ginny as Dumbledore waved his wand. If this step wasn't performed, then the whole contract would be void, and they'd be right back where they started.

"Miss Ginevra Weasley, as the Contracted Woman of this contract, do you take this contract freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do" said Ginny.

"Mr Arthur Weasley, as Squire Weasley, and Head of the Sacred Twenty-Eight House of Weasley, do you consent to this contract freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion?"

"I do," said Arthur Weasley.

"In the Holy Name of Merlin, as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, I declare Mr Harry James Black and Miss Ginevra Weasley to be Betrothed!"

Dumbledore put a piece of Parchment in front of the Grangers and the Weasleys. "Please sign and date on the line."

He handed the Parchment in front of Sirius.

"Yeah, I know," said Sirius, who give it to Harry, and then Hermione and Ginny, each of whom, as parties to the Contract, signed on the line on the parchment, and wrote the date.

After everyone signed, they all relaxed, and Dumbledore apologised for having to be that formal and use _that_ script. Then Hermione asked a big question. "I thought that this was more than an engagement and less than a marriage?"

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"Don't I get an Engagement Ring, then?" asked Hermione cheekily.

Harry knew exactly what he was going to give his Girls on their birthdays.

\\\/

The Professors had really piled on the homework for the Easter Holidays, as exams were right around the corner, in June. In fact, the day that the exams were finished was the day of the Third Task, whatever that ended up being.

According to Hermione's research and _Hogwarts: A History, _the third task tended to be something straightforward, like a maze. This meant that, in addition to their usual school-work, the Trio were also researching ways to combat obstacles that you'd find in a maze. They were also making sure that Harry knew how to defend against large creatures, as they had a sinking suspicion that Hagrid was going to provide what the organisers called 'obstacles' and what Hagrid called 'lovable misunderstood creatures.'

That was one downside to not taking his class—they didn't know what type of creatures he'd brought to class.

After they got back to Hogwarts, the Trio overheard a Ravenclaw talking to her friend. While they would normally ignore this, the subject matter caught their attention.

"My auntie works for the Department of the Regulation of Magical Creatures," the Ravenclaw was saying. "She's been working a lot of overtime this year, getting permits for and importing dragons and a sphinx. Then, she had to work more to procure a fourth dragon, as well. She's hardly had any time to catch up on her technical journals."

This caused the Trio to change part of their strategy—they would account for Sphinxes when practising for the tournament.

\\\/

Practising for the Tournament and revising for exams took up most of their time. Harry and Ginny had the additional complication of being on the Gryffindor Quidditch team that had made it to the semifinals. Angelina had attempted to forbid the team from going home for Easter break, but had been overruled by McGonagall.

"Even Wood wasn't this bad," said McGonagall as Angelina tried to book more time at the pitch. The semifinals and the finals would both take place before the Final Task, and an All-Star Game between Hogwarts and the Visitors would take place after the Task. The teachers would choose their picks for the best seven at Hogwarts and from the Visitors.

"You have most of the votes for Hogwarts Seeker, no matter what happens, Potter," McGonagall told him in confidence one day in late April. "In fact, I think that there is only one Professor voting against you, and I'm sure that you can guess who that is."

\\\/

During their preparations for the Third Task, the Trio had managed to convince Ron to be their 'study partner.' This meant that he'd be the one getting hit by all sorts of spells. Occasionally, Ginny or Hermione would also act as the target dummy.

"I'm aching all over, Hermione," complained Ron after getting hit by another Stunner.

"Well, maybe if you'd aim properly, you'd hit the pillows that we put down," she replied.

"It's hard to aim when you're being Stunned," he argued back.

Ginny then said that Harry looked like he had that spell down, and that they should try the Impedimenta spell next.

\\\/

Soon, it was the weekend of the Semifinals. Gryffindor would play Hufflepuff, and the winner would face the winner of the Durmstrang v Beauxbatons match. These Semifinals would be the last games played under the Tournament rules: the two finals would revert to standard Quidditch rules.

Angelina was being her usual self, and getting into regular arguments with McGonagall on how much the Gryffindor team could practise. In an odd move, during one of the arguments, Angelina had given the Captaincy for the two final games to Harry. This was so that he would be on par with the other two Champions (at least one of which he'd have to play).

"OK, guys, I know that I'm not the regular Captain, but here I am. Let's go out there and play hard, people," said Harry at the pre-game speech. "Let's look at our roster: we have 3 really good Chasers, two excellent Beaters, a Keeper who admittedly could use a bit of work, but is fine at the right times, and you have me. We also have an excellent substitute in case I or one of the Chasers gets hurt. This is the big one. We win, and we most likely face Durmstrang and their Captain Victor Krum. We lose, and we play the nobodies that play at Beauxbatons. Let's go out and win!"

The Gryffindor team flew onto the field. Jordan was announcing as usual. "Welcome to today's game: The Semifinal Match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor! I just got a look at the line-ups, and you'll hear one major change for the Gryffindors."

"For Hufflepuff! In goals #8 Herbert Fleet! Chasers #1 Zacharias Smith, #3 Jason Cadwallader, and #4 Tasmin Applebee! Beaters #2 Maxine O'Flaherty and #5 Anthony Rickett! And at Seeker, one of Hogwarts Triwizard Champions: Captain #7 Cedric Diggory!"

"And for Gryffindor! In goals, #8, Ronald Weasley. At Chaser, #1 Angelina Johnson, #2 Katie Bell, and #3 Alicia Spinnet! Beaters #5 and #6 Fred and George Weasley! And today's on-field Captain for the Lions, at Seeker, #7 Harry Potter! And please welcome, from Canada, Referee Abigail Gibbs!"

"According to the match report, Ms Johnson wanted to give Mr Potter some experience as Captain, and somehow managed to convince the higher-ups. Potter is down on the field shaking hands with fellow Triwizard Champion, Cedric Diggory, his opposite number. I think that this could be another reason for Angelina to appoint Potter to the roll: The other two Triwizard Champions that play Quidditch are Captains of their teams."

The game was high-scoring compared to the usual games at Hogwarts, but the final score was quite tame for this tournament. Hufflepuff managed to put 55 goals past Ron, and Gryffindor managed to score 45 goals against the Hufflepuff Keeper, before Harry managed to snag the Snitch to send Gryffindor to the final with the final score of 600-550.

A couple of times during the game, it looked as though a Seeker had seen the Snitch, but an almost imperceptible nod from the other made sure that the Snitch was only caught when they wanted it to be caught. _They were playing with us, _I thought.

The other game was Durmstrang v Beauxbatons. That game lasted an hour before Krum managed to save his team, and win the game. It was going to be the game of the century.

\\\/

**Harry Potter, Krum to face off in Final of Trischool Quidditch Championship**

_This weekend had two exciting Quidditch matches in the semifinal stage of the Quidditch Championship that was attached to this year's Triwizard Tournament. Hufflepuff (who will play Beauxbatons in the Consolation Match), was defeated by Harry Potter and the Gryffindor team by fifty points (600-550), and Krum and his Durmstrang team beat Beauxbatons by 200 points._

_You read that correctly, readers! In a stunning move, the Gryffindor Captain Angelina Johnson has appointed Mr Potter to the role for these final games. Lee Jordan, Quidditch Announcer at Hogwarts, speculated that this move would mark Potter as being equal to Krum and Diggory, both of whom Captain their teams._

"_I wanted to let him have some fun," said Angelina. "I'm only at this school one more year, and I figure that Potter will be the one to take over once I've left. Potter is good at holding the team together, and an excellent Quidditch player."_

_His opposite number from Hufflepuff had this to say, "I enjoy playing against Potter. He's not the type to just follow you around, he's actively looking for the ball. He played an excellent game this weekend, and I wish him the best of luck against Durmstrang later this month."_

"_My headmaster and I thought that this would happen," said Victor Krum, the Durmstrang Champion. "That is why we insisted on having Gryffindor _not _play Durmstrang in the Group Stage. I have been watching Mr Potter play throughout this tournament, and I saw his flying in the First Task, and I believe that it will be an exciting challenge playing against him in the Final. Perhaps someday we will be able to do it at a World Cup."_

_While we at the _Prophet_ hope that someday Mr Potter may play for England, we think that even the most hopeful of fans will not think an England v Bulgaria match likely for the Final any time soon._

A/N: A/N stands for Author's Notes, and I generally use them for extra information that doesn't go in the text body

I'm not sure whether or not the Wizarding World uses the same criteria to determine "Easter" as the Christian Churches.

They might say that Easter is the second week in April or something, or they may use the method based on the full moon, as the Christian Churches do (the first Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Northern Vernal Equinox (21 March)).

In this fiction, assume that the Wizarding World uses the Full Moon method.

Also, I messed up with scheduling, which is why I made that comment in this chapter about the Simultaneous matches. Ironically, when I originally came up with the schedule, I think that I was watching the Muggle Football World Cup ('soccer' to Americans, Canadians, and Australians)

The flashback is a modified version of part of Chapter 7 of _A Missed Traffic Light or the Bonds of Friendship, Book 1 _(written by myself)

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

25000th word of Book 4: Been ('Malfoy had been given', Chapter 11)

30000th word of Book 4:

Book 1: 17,439 words

Book 2: 20,192 words

Book 3: 17,007 words

Book 4:

total through Three Books: 54,386 words (18,128.67 words/book, 1875.38 words/chapter) (decreased from above total due to summery in Book 3) (29 Chapters)

at the end of chapter 12: 29,267 words for Book 4 (2439.08 words/chapter)

total through Four Books: 83,655 words (20,913.75 words/book, 2040.37 words/chapter)

Semifinals:

Gryffindor v Hufflepuff May 6 (Game C)

Durmstrang A v Beauxbatons A May 7 (Game D)

L-C v L-D May 13 (Consolation Match) (Game E)

W-C v W-D May 14 (Championship Match) (Game F)


	13. Finals

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 13—Finals

The day of the final quickly came. Angelina, the Captain, got sick the week of the match, and while she would be on the field, she wouldn't be flying.

The line-ups were two of the best in the tournament, combining for over 4400 points in the tournament. Harry had taken to his role as Captain well ever since Angelina had appointed him Captain for the semifinal and the final, and now that she was out ill, he'd been running the practises hard.

Durmstrang had its usual players, and Ginny Weasley was the substitute for Gryffindor. The Ministry had to put extra seats in the Hogsmeade Stadium, because of so many ticket requests. People were pouring in from all over England to watch the game between the two Triwizard Champions—the second-youngest Seeker in a century, and the World Cup runner up.

As always, the game was being broadcast on the Wireless, but people were having a hard time listening, as the noise level inside the stadium was so high. It reached even higher levels when the teams flew onto the pitch, and somehow went even higher when the announcers were calling the line-ups.

It got to an unbelievably loud level when the two Captains' names were called. The players could barely hear the whistle to start the game after Krum and Harry shook hands. It was only when players just missed being hit by Bludgers that they realised that the game had begun.

The Slytherins and Durmstrang students were of course rooting for Durmstrang, Beauxbatons was a toss-up, and most Hogwarts students were rooting for Gryffindor.

Ginny got the first 10 goals for Gryffindor, while Ron was good for the first twenty minutes, blocking quite a large number of shots. Then, Durmstrang started to get nasty—it was almost like being at a Gryffindor v Slytherin match. There were lots of illegal hits, only some of which the referee caught (which Katie Bell put away easily) and quite a few well-placed Bludgers.

The Chaser line for Durmstrang then came to life, with Shafarenko getting the next five goals, Mikhnov adding a couple more, and Kaczmarek assisting on all of them. The Gryffindor Chasers then answered back with a number of well placed goals from Bell and Spinnet.

An hour into the game, there was no sign of the Snitch, and the score was 300-200 in favour of Gryffindor. Kaczmarek then started to really get into the game, evening the score at 300 apiece.

Two hours into the game, the score was even at 650 apiece. Krum had attempted the Wronski Feint on Harry at least twice, and Harry had attempted the same three times.

Right as the teams were starting to get a bit tired, at around 2:30 into the game, Harry spotted it. Krum did, too. They got as close to their broom as possible, and dived. Less than 5 metres above the ground, Harry pulled up.

In his hands was the Golden Snitch. Gryffindor and Harry Potter had beaten Krum by the score of 1040-900.

At this point, the crowd went even crazier than they had been—not unlike English fans after a football match. On the field, however, the Hogwarts players were shaking the Durmstrang players' hands. When Krum and Harry shook hands, they embraced quickly, telling each other how much fun they'd had.

The Ministry of Magic had commissioned a trophy just for this purpose, and the Minister herself, along with the Head of Quidditch England came down to the field. Escorting the trophy in were two Aurors with Ceremonial Uniforms and white gloves on.

The trophy was shaped like a cup, but with the Seal of each of the participating schools engraved on the base. Thanks to magic, the names of the Winning players were also already engraved, because really, it was a spell so simple even the Minister could do it.

"I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming to today's game, and for all those who came to these games, thank you," said the Minister. She was using some type of Amplification Charm, so that everyone in the stadium could hear. "This is the first time that something like this has been done. I think that this was a very successful Tournament. I hope that someday in the near future we can do it again."

The stadium erupted in cheers after every sentence Minister Longbottom said, quite a change from the previous Minister.

"Now, without further ado, let me present the trophy to the Winning Captains, Miss Angelina Johnson, and Mr Harry Potter."

The crowd cheered its' loudest as Harry met Angelina on the field, and as they hoisted the trophy. _This thing weighs like 30 kilos, _thought Harry. Harry took the trophy and hoisted it. He then handed it to Ginny, who started handing it to the other team members. After a couple of minutes, they were called back to the Centre Circle.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please rise, and Gentlemen, remove your caps, as we raise the banners of the Top three teams!"

The Hogwarts anthem started to play as three flags were raised. On the left, with bronze piping was the Beauxbatons flag, as they'd won the Consolation match against Hufflepuff. On the right, with silver piping was the Durmstrang flag, and in the middle was the Gryffindor flag, the flag that the Hogwarts students saw so often at the end of the school year.

The flags were huge, each measuring about 16 metres by 9 metres.

Just then, Lee Jordan came over the Stadium speakers. "I was just informed that there is a party in the Hogwarts Great Hall, and all students and staff are invited."

Harry looked at the stands, and saw shocked looks on the teachers' faces. _Apparently they have no idea that someone's been planning a party._

When they got to the Great Hall, it was set up for a party, with the Banners of all three schools, and all four houses hanging from the walls. There was a drinks table set up at one end of the Hall, and a dance floor had been set up, similar to the Yule Ball.

Harry saw McGonagall go over to the drinks table and cast a spell on the various bottles and bowls of drinks. Harry knew that it was an alcohol transformation spell: any alcohol in the drinks would be transformed into an alcohol substitute that had the same taste and smell as real alcohol, but with little to none of the usual intoxicating effects.

Someone had set up what looked like a DJ table, and there was a DJ playing all different sorts of music. The elves were producing literal tonnes of food, which was quickly consumed. By midnight, when everyone was a bit tired, and a bit thinking that they were supposed to be drunk but weren't, McGonagall sent the Hogwarts students to bed, and the other Headmasters quickly ushered their students back to their respective lodgings.

\\\/

On the 24th, it became obvious to Harry why the Final of the Quidditch Tournament was held in Hogsmeade (besides having more seating). He got a note at breakfast.

_Mr Potter,_

_Please report to the Quidditch field at 19:00 tonight. You will receive your instructions for the third task._

_Professor M McGonagall_

At 16:45, Harry headed down to the Pitch to see what the 'instructions' for the Third Task were. Cedric showed up almost as soon as he did, followed closely by Krum and Fleur.

The field was unrecognisable. There were rows of hedges all around the stadium.

"Looks good," said Bagman cheerfully. "Can anyone tell me what this is going to be?"

Harry knew, based on their research and based on the overwhelming visual evidence that it was a maze, however, he was beaten to saying that by Victor Krum.

"Very good, Mr Krum," said Bagman. "They'll be 6 metres tall by next month. The task is rather straightforward. All you have to do is get to the Triwizard Cup somewhere at the centre of the maze. The first person to touch the Cup, wins the Tournament."

"We simply have to make it through the maze?" asked Fleur.

"Oh, Hagrid's providing a couple of things, and the Ministry have procured some _interesting _obstacles for inside the maze. Hagrid has a couple of creatures, the ministry is providing a creature or two, and there will be certain spells that have to be broken. Mr Potter and Mr Diggory, the leaders of the Tournament, will get a head start in the maze, followed by Mr Krum and Miss Delacour. Any more questions? Good, let's go home—it's a bit chilly tonight, isn't it?"

"This is not good," said Harry to the others.

"It is maze. Maze is easy." said Krum.

"Hagrid is providing the creatures," said Cedric as if that explained everything. At the blank look on the foreign students' faces, he explained, "Hagrid thinks that dragons and three-headed dogs are cute. He once hatched an Acromantula. Basically, the bigger and the more deadly, the more he likes it."

"According to my classmates, he has these blast-ended skrewts or something that have exploding ends, stingers, and various other features," said Harry. "I'd take this maze completely seriously, or else you'll be going home in a box, if you know what I mean."

"Thank you for the warning," said Fleur and Krum.

When Harry got back to the Common Room, and was ambushed by Hermione and Ginny, he simply said, "We were right. It's a maze."

\\\/

End-of-term exams were approaching very quickly. Strictly speaking, Harry didn't need to take the exams, as he was a Triwizard Champion, but four years of being around Hermione made him want to take the exams.

The exams themselves weren't all that difficult with the preparations that Harry had done for the Tournament (except for History, of course—he was pretty sure that he did poorly in History).

On the day of the Third Task, during Breakfast, McGonagall came over to where he was sitting. "Mr Potter, if I were you, I'd hurry up. Your family is waiting for you in the Entrance Hall."

"Thank you, professor," he said as he finished his toast. He got up a minute later, and walked out. Standing in the Hall were Mr and Mrs Diggory, a man and a woman who could only be Krum's parents, a man and the third-most beautiful woman he'd ever seen (obviously Fleur's parents), the Weasleys, Sirius, and Gwendolen.

"Mrs Weasley! Sirius! Auror Morgan!" Harry exclaimed when he saw them.

"Now, Harry, you can call me Gwen or Gwendolen," said the Auror. "I am going to be your aunt soon."

"And you know better than to call me 'Mrs Weasley'," said Molly giving him one of her famous hugs. "Call me 'Molly'. It's been so long since I've been at this school. Does the Fat Lady still guard Gryffindor Tower?"

That day, Harry took his family to his favourite spots in Hogwarts, and generally had a good time, until it was time for dinner.

"This is a nice change," said Molly. "I do enjoy cooking, but its just Arthur and I now. Percy, Bill, and Charlie are all grown up, with flats and jobs, and the others are in school."

"I'm sure that Emma wouldn't mind if you invited yourself over to cook dinner for them," Harry said. Emma, of course, was Hermione's mum, and the mother of his godchild, Bianca.

After a quick dinner, it was time to go down to the pitch for the Third Task.

\\\/

When Harry got down to the pitch a couple of minutes later, Minister Longbottom, Director Bones, and the Headmasters were already there. Director Bones was handing out necklaces to the Champions. When all four Champions had arrived, she told them the significance of the necklaces.

"These are tracking necklaces," she explained. "Although I had a loyal Auror place the Cup, I want to make sure that if something does happen, you'll be protected. "This necklace, until deactivated, will set off an alarm at Auror Headquarters. Code Mauve."

"Mauve? What about red?" asked Harry.

"Apparently, other people make fun of us for only going up to red, so I redesigned the colour chart," said Bones. "Mauve is Maximum Alert Status, Apparate immediately to the tracking signal ready to take down bad guys."

"If you run into any trouble, and wish to leave the competition, use your wand to send red sparks into the air," said Dumbledore. "My staff and the Aurors are patrolling the outside of the maze, ready to take action if need be. You've all done wonderfully in this tournament, and I wish you the best of luck."

\\\/

The task started. Harry entered the maze, and took a left at the first fork, as that lead to the centre quicker. Something was bothering him, like a funny feeling that something would go wrong. Harry lit his wand, and then performed the Point-Me spell. It indicated that he would have to keep going in this direction.

It was unusually quiet in the maze, and it was rather disconcerting that the path was this empty. Harry thought of a phrase from one of Hermione's favourite movies. _It's a trap!_

Just then, something rather large came into view. He didn't need to look twice to realise that it was a Blast-Ended Skrewt. He used his most powerful Stunner on it, but the armour was too thick. He pointed the wand downwards, to the underside of the beast. It hit, and the skrewt collapsed. He went around a corner, and saw Cedric panting.

"I see you just got past one, too," said Cedric. They continued on through the maze in opposite directions. Just then, Harry saw a dead Ginny in front of him. Part of him wanted to run over to it, before he realised what it was—it was a Boggart. "_Riddukulus!"_ he shouted, and the figure stood up.

Harry continued through the maze until he came across an odd mist. He walked through it, and felt himself impossibly upside down. He closed his eyes and pulled his foot away from the top. Immediately, he fell to the ground on the other side of the mist. Harry heard a scream—a female scream.

_Something must've happened to Fleur_, he thought as he saw the red sparks. He heard another scream—this time from Cedric.

"Don't do that!" Cedric was calling. "I'm your friend!"

"_Crucio!"_ said Krum's voice. Harry rushed over to Cedric, forcing the hedges apart. He could see Krum's eyes glazed over. _He's under the _Imperious Curse, thought Harry.

"Stupefy!" shouted Harry, and Krum collapsed. Harry then used Krum's wand to shoot the red sparks.

"Are you okay?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, I'm good," said Cedric. "It hurts a bit, but he ain't all that good with that curse."

"Well, he was under the Imperious Curse," said Harry.

"Thanks, Potter," said Cedric.

Harry kept casting the Point-Me Spell, changing course when necessary. Soon, he came across a magnificent creature that had the body of a large lion, and the head of a woman. It was a Sphinx.

"The Quickest way to your goal is through me," said the Sphinx. "Also, you are very near your goal."

"I'd ask you to move, but you'd refuse," said Harry. "Just tell me your riddle."

"Very well," said the Sphinx. "I assume you know the rules?"

Harry nodded. He knew that the Sphinx would let him through if he answered correctly, but would attack him if he did not.

_First think of the person who lives in disguise Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies_

_Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend The middle of middle and the end of the end?_

_And finally give me the sound often heard During the search for a hard-to-find word_

_Now string them together and answer me this Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?_

Harry knew that riddles were not his forte (except when they had the first name Tom), but this one seemed simple enough. He was pretty sure that the first part was 'spy' and the last part 'er' but what was a creature he'd be unwilling to kiss? 'Spy-er'

"A spider," Harry answered confidently. _This is not good if there is an Acromantula ahead, _thought Harry. _Usually Sphinx' clues have multiple meanings. _

"Correct," said the Sphinx. "You answered the question quicker than the usual humans who solve my riddles."

The Sphinx stepped aside, and Harry continued through the maze. He was just thinking that he must be close to the centre when he saw it. The Triwizard Cup on a pedestal. Cedric was closer, but Cedric didn't see the giant spider come up to him.

"Cedric, watch out!" called Harry. Harry shot off _Impedimenta _spells at the spider, causing it to collapse.

"Thanks again, Potter," said Cedric. "Take the Cup."

"No, I had help," said Harry. "Your dad was talking a bit much at the Inauguration."

"He could never keep his mouth shut," said Cedric chuckling. "We take it together, Hogwarts Victory."

"Really, Cedric?"

"I had tonnes of help, too," he said. Harry and him touched the Cup, and Harry once again felt a very uncomfortable feeling.

The Cup was a Portkey. The were in some type of graveyard.

"I see that the guest of honour has arrived," said a high, sibilant voice. "Kill the spare, Dawlish."

A/N: A/N stands for Author's Notes, and I generally use them for extra information that doesn't go in the text body

_Just so you know, I edited Chapter 12, a bit since I uploaded it originally _

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

25000th word of Book 4: Been ('Malfoy had been given', Chapter 11)

30000th word of Book 4: Erupted ('The stadium erupted', Chapter 13)

35000th word of Book 4:

Book 1: 17,439 words

Book 2: 20,192 words

Book 3: 17,007 words

Book 4:

total through Three Books: 54,386 words (18,128.67 words/book, 1875.38 words/chapter) (decreased from above total due to summery in Book 3) (29 Chapters)

at the end of chapter 13: 32,183 words for Book 4 (2475.62 words/chapter)

total through Four Books: 86,569 words (21,642.25 words/book, 2061.17 words/chapter)

Semifinals:

Finals:

Beauxbatons A v Hufflepuff 1050-700 Beauxbatons (Consolation Match)

Durmstrang v Gryffindor 1040-900 Gryffindor (Championship Match)


	14. Endings

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Chapter 14—The End

_The Cup was a Portkey. They were in some type of graveyard._

"_I see that the guest of honour has arrived," said a high, sibilant voice. "Kill the spare, Dawlish."_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_ shouted the Auror Dawlish. Cedric quickly dodged behind a gravestone, and the curse passed harmlessly overhead.

"_Get the boy,"_ said the snake-like voice. Harry only knew one voice that sounded like that, Lord Voldemort. It was then that he was Stunned.

When he came to, he was tied to a gravestone marked **Tom Riddle**. That's when his suspicions were confirmed. _That's Voldemort's Muggle dad's name,_ Harry thought to himself. The Cup was nowhere to be seen, nor was Cedric.

There was a large bubbling cauldron in front of Harry. Dawlish took the creature Harry presumed to be Voldemort and placed it in the cauldron.

Dawlish took a bone from the grave Harry was tied to. "Bone of the Father, unknowingly given, you shall renew your son." said the Auror.

_Speaking of Aurors, what's taking them so long? _Harry thought to himself, almost missing the next part of the Ceremony.

Dawlish cut off a finger, and dropped it into the cauldron saying, "Flesh of the Servant, willingly given, you shall revive your master."

Dawlish then came at Harry with a knife. He cut along Harry's arm in the shape of the Dark Mark. He tipped the blood on the knife into the Cauldron. "Blood of the Enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."

The cauldron exploded, and a fine mist appeared. Out of the mist, stepped Lord Voldemort.

"My wand, Dawlish," said Voldemort.

Dawlish reverently gave the wand to the Dark Lord. "I see that you rescued it from the Auror Evidence bins, my loyal servant."

"Of course, milord," said Dawlish.

"Put out your arm," said Voldemort. When Dawlish complied, Voldemort touched the Dark Mark on the Auror's arm.

Harry expected excruciating pain, but none came. Perhaps the severing of the connection between him and Voldemort helped that. Soon, people started Apparating into the graveyard in full Death Eater regalia.

"My Lord, you're alive," cried one of them.

"So few of you here," said the Dark Lord. Then more Apparations occurred.

"Mr Voldemort, we have you surrounded. Put your arms up and surrender!" said a loud voice. Quicker than a blink of an eye, Voldemort shot a green curse at the speaker and the person collapsed, dead. The pink-haired Auror who'd taught at Hogwarts took Harry down from the ropes.

"What took you so long?" asked Harry.

"We ran into some _complications_," said Tonks, the Auror who preferred to be known by her last name only. "Now let's blow this thing and go home."

Voldemort started sending Killing Curses in every direction. Some hit his Death Eaters, others simply destroyed gravestones that the Aurors were hidden behind.

Harry noticed that Tonks was wearing what looked to be a watch. The watch now showed two sections of mauve.

"What does that mean?" asked Harry.

"Rules of Engagement have changed," the Auror replied. "You will have to survive on your own, until we can take down the Target, or until we are forced to retreat. Double Mauve means that Killing Force is allowed."

Dumbledore Apparated in, and started firing curses at Voldemort, while the Aurors were taking down what few Death Eaters there were. Harry foolishly jumped into the fray, blasting curses at the Death Eaters, and eventually picking up a fallen wand.

_It never hurts to have two, _he thought. The Dark Lord noticed Harry and shot a Killing Curse at him, right as Harry shot _Sectumsempra _at Voldemort. The curses connected. A beam of white light formed between the two wands, and started putting out enormous amounts of energy.

"Do not interfere!" shouted Voldemort at his Death Eaters. Unfortunately, there were no Death Eaters still standing to take the order not to interfere.

_Good thing I picked up a second wand, huh, _thought Harry. He focused all of his feelings of love towards Hermione and Ginny, Sirius, Gwendolen, the Weasleys and his dead parents into what is notably a Dark Arts Spell, and amazingly, his second _Sectumsempra _worked. It was a little harder to cast than with his own wand, still connected with Voldemort's, but it worked.

"What did you do to me?" cried Voldemort as he tried to renew the power in the Killing Curse still connected with Harry's wand. The connection broke, and Harry started firing the most offensive spells he knew—Bone Breakers and Reductors. Voldemort collapsed, and a spell from an Auror finished him off.

"Harry, come with me," said Tonks.

"No, we need to get our story straight," said Harry. "Oi! Ministry Lot, listen up! I played no part in taking down the Dark Lord. You did that yourself. I was just an observer, got that?"

With the display he'd just given, the Aurors nodded, as Tonks Apparated them away.

\\\/ Twenty Minutes prior

_The Cup was a Portkey. They were in some type of graveyard._

"_I see that the guest of honour has arrived," said a high, sibilant voice. "Kill the spare, Dawlish."_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_ shouted the Auror Dawlish. Cedric quickly dodged behind a gravestone, and the curse passed harmlessly overhead.

"Get the boy," said the snake-like voice. Cedric saw Harry been stunned, and no sign of any Aurors. He summoned the Cup, and it took him back to the judges stand.

"That's my son," shouted his dad. "He's won the Triwizard Tournament."

Dumbledore, Bones, and Longbottom rushed over. "What's happened? Our tracking system is down."

"You'll find it was Dawlish who did that," said Cedric. "And diverted the Portkey."

"Dawlish? I never even knew that he was a sympathiser!" said Amelia Bones. "Where did it take you? Where's Harry?"

"It went to a graveyard. One of the tombstones was marked **Tom Riddle,**" Cedric said. He could see the colour drain from Dumbledore's face. "Dawlish is there; a homunculus was there ordering him around. I think that it was the Dark Lord, and that Dawlish is trying to restore Him to a body.

"Are you absolutely certain that's what the tombstone was labelled, Mr Diggory?" asked Dumbledore. At Cedric's nod, Dumbledore turned to Amelia Bones. "They are in a town called Little Hangleton. Get your Aurors there now! We have the perfect opportunity to Defeat the Dark Lord at his weakest. As Chief Warlock, I hereby place the Aurors on Double Mauve Alert—Killing Force is authorised after he tries to kill you."

The Headmaster and Bones ran off, while Cedric's dad came down from the stands. "I'm so proud of you, boy," Cedric's dad said. "You've won the Triwizard Tournament!"

"No, dad, it was a draw," Cedric clarified.

"But you're here and Harry's not!"

"Harry is in the middle of something big, Dad," said Cedric. "Dawlish has been the Traitor in the Core. Dawlish needs Harry to help resurrect the Dark Lord, not that Potter will do it willingly. We drew for the Triwizard, and the Aurors need to get their quickly or the only Harry Potter we'll ever see is a dead one!"

\\\/ That same moment in Little Hangleton

"Target is sighted," said one Auror. "Got it," said another.

"I've got the boy sighted, Boss," said Tonks.

"Go for it," said Kingsley. "Protect the Boy. Aurors, fall out, attempt to arrest the Death Eaters. If they resist, curse them."

"Mr Voldemort, we have you surrounded. Put your arms up and surrender!" said the first Auror in a loud voice. Quicker than Tonks' eyes could see, a green light sped towards the Auror and killed him. That's when her watch started flashing double mauve.

"What took you so long?" asked Harry.

"We ran into some _complications_," said Tonks in reply. "Now let's blow this thing and go home."

Voldemort started sending Killing Curses in every direction. Some hit his Death Eaters, others simply destroyed gravestones that the Aurors were hidden behind.

"What does that mean?" asked Harry pointing to the watch.

"Rules of Engagement have changed," the Auror replied. "You will have to survive on your own, until we can take down the Target, or until we are forced to retreat. Double Mauve means that Killing Force is allowed."

Dumbledore Apparated in, and started firing curses at Voldemort. Tonks was busy fighting off the Death Eaters. Right now, she was working on Macnair, of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. Tonks knew that he liked killing just as much as most giants did. She finished up her duel with him, taking him down permanently.

Just then, Voldemort's wand seemed to connect with Harry's. "Do not interfere!" yelled the Dark Lord to his followers. Except that there weren't any followers left conscious to take that order. Harry pulled out a second wand, and cast something with it. It looked like a Dark Curse, and it caused Voldemort to break the connection.

Then, Tonks was amazed at what Harry started to send at Voldemort—he was sending Bone-Breakers, Reductors and Blasting Curses. Finally, the Dark Lord fell, and another Auror finished him off.

"Let's get this straight, Aurors," Harry called after Tonks tried to take him home. "I played no part in taking down the Dark Lord. You did that yourself. I was just an observer, got that?"

Tonks could see the Aurors nodding as she Apparated Harry away, back to the school. There was a little known hole in the Wards, at a certain point, that only Aurors and the Headmaster could get through. She would've preferred to use the Floo, but as there wasn't one available, she had to Apparate Potter back.

As soon as they got back, Harry collapsed from exhaustion.

\\\/

"I think that he's waking up," said one voice.

"Yeah, I think he is," said another.

Harry opened his eyes. Everything was blurry, as he didn't have his glasses. Someone handed them to him.

"Thanks," he said as he put them on. Standing around his bedside were a whole group of people—the Weasleys, Hermione, Ginny, Sirius, Gwendolen (back from hospital after being wounded in the battle), Cedric, Cedric's parents, the Headmaster, McGonagall and the Nurse, Mme Pomfrey.

"How are you feeling?" asked Pomfrey. "You've been suffering from Substantial Magical Exhaustion, and have been asleep two and a half days."

"I feel...refreshed," said Harry.

"According to my scans, I suppose I can let you leave tonight," said the Nurse, almost unhappily. "And when you leave, turn around and look at the bed."

This statement got everyone laughing, but Harry didn't realise until later.

"Good job, Potter," said Cedric. "I managed to get them to understand that we drew for the Cup, and they are going to hold the ceremony as soon as you're well."

"You did well, too, Cedric," said Harry.

"That's a couple you owe me now, kid," said Cedric. "I helped get the Aurors there who saved your behind."

Harry knew that this banter was just in jest, of course.

"You gave us quite a bit of a scare, Harry," said Ginny. "You blocked us out, and we had no clue where you were."

"Cedric talked to the Minister and the Headmaster, and they immediately sent Aurors to rescue you," said Hermione.

"What about the tracking charm?"

"Dawlish disabled the system. Dumbledore told the Aurors where to go after a description from Cedric," responded Hermione.

Later on, Harry was allowed to leave. He turned to look at the bed, and on the wall, right above the pillow was a plaque: **This bed is the Property of Mr James Potter, Mr Harry Potter, and their family for all the times they've slept here.**

\\\/

The ceremony was later that evening in the Great Hall.

"Could I have your attention, please!" called Dumbledore. "To present the Winners of the Triwizard Tournament, I present The Dowager Countess, the Dowager Lady Longbottom, Minister Longbottom!"

"Thank you," said Minister Longbottom, waving her hands to tell the crowd to quiet down. "I would like to recognise our Runners-Up. From Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour, and from Durmstrang, Mr Victor Krum"

There was a thunderous applause as the Champions stood up and acknowledged it.

"Now, our winners: Please welcome to the stage Mr Cedric Diggory and Mr Harry Potter!"

Harry and Cedric went up to the stage in their finest robes—for Harry, they were the same robes he'd worn to the Inauguration. On the stage, there were two giant cheques and the Triwizard Trophy. The Minister handed them their oversized cheques (redeemable for cash at Gringotts Bank), and many photos were taken. Cedric and Harry gave each other a look, and then grabbed the Trophy together, holding it high.

"Now, if Mr Potter and Mr Diggory would like to say a few words?" said the Minister.

"Uh, I'd like to thank you all for coming, and I'd like to thank you for your support during this Tournament," said Harry, once again to thunderous applause. "I'd like to congratulate Mr Diggory, for winning the tournament with me, the other Champions, who gave me stiff competition during this tournament, and for the Aurors who, I am proud to say, compromised the Dark Lord, Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort to a permanent end."

This was met with the loudest cheering yet. Harry estimated that the noise level was at least 130dB.

"I am pleased to announce that, when the Aurors came to save my skin after I was kidnapped by the Forces of the now dead Dark Lord, they were able not only to save me, but to take down the Dark Lord and His followers. It is a great day that I can stand here, and announce this, for Voldemort is dead, and his followers are in rather bad shape.

"Once again, I'd like to thank The Headmasters and Headmistress of the Schools, the Minister for Magic, The Director of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, and my friends and family, for putting this Tournament together, for keeping me safe, and for supporting me through this tournament."

Cedric then went up to the podium. "True Hufflepuffs value hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play above all else. While I cannot say whether or not I am truly a Hufflepuff, although I think I am, Mr Potter, my co-winner exhibits many of these same traits. Yes, Mr Potter also acts very much like a Gryffindor some times, and on occasion, and I am sorry for saying this Harry, acts like a Slytherin, but I choose to think that Mr Potter would have done well in Hufflepuff.

"I know that this really isn't the place to be praising my fellow winner, but Mr Potter is a great young man. I had my doubts at the beginning that he'd even survive the first task, but he has now proven himself to be one of the best Hogwarts has to offer.

"Like Harry, I'd like to thank the Headmasters, and the Minister for Magic, and the DMLE for their quick work in saving Harry and defeating You-Know-Who. I am inspired by the difference a good Minister can be, and Mrs Longbottom is a great Minister. Instead of tucking tail and not believing us, she immediately got her Aurors to the scene of the Crime, and were able to take down You-Know-Who. She is a great Minister that takes the Death Eaters off the streets, and puts them into Azkaban, where they belong.

"Victor and Fleur, you were some of the best opponents that I could ask for. I especially enjoyed beating you to that Snitch in the first game. You made the Tournament enjoyable, despite the attempts of others to disrupt our lives."

"Thank you, Mr Diggory, and Mr Potter," said the Minister. "I am glad that my public is confident that I will do the right thing. Now that we're finished with that part of the ceremony, I'd like to introduce the All-Star Teams for the match between All-Star Hogwarts v All-Star Visitors.

"For the Visitors, Keeper #1 Konstantin Mihailov, Chasers #2 Julienne Paquin, #9 Marion Allemoz and #7 Andriy Mikhnov, Beaters #6 Sara Seiler and #5 Orlene LaForce, and Seeker #7 Captain Victor Krum."

"For Hogwarts, Keeper #5 Grant Page, Chasers #1 Angelina Johnson, #4 Tasmin Applebee, and #3 Chris Warrington, Beaters #8 and #9 Fred and George Weasley, and Seeker #7 Captain Harry Potter."

Naturally, cheers accompanied this announcement, along with some boos, particularly from the players that didn't get chosen.

\\\/

Tickets were being sold at 4s apiece for the All-Star Game, and quickly the number of tickets sold exceeded 10000. The tickets were being sold for charity, and the charity got a donation of over 4200 Galleons, after Harry matched the donation.

The game itself ended up being a nice friendly game. Harry had made his team train, so that they could at least play decently together. Krum had done the same thing with his team. It was a good way to end a school year.

The Great Hall was as crowded as ever for the Leaving Feast. After the Feast, the students would be getting on their respective transports to go home.

"Another year gone," said Professor Dumbledore. "And what a year it was. The Triwizard Tournament, and the Quidditch Cup, well done to all that participated in those events. Usually, at this point I'd award the House Cup, but suffice it to say, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor won the House Cup this year. I hope that you all remember your time here well. I was pleased to have an amazing group of students at this school this year, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, abilities and shortcomings.

"Each of you will always be invited back to this school, as long as it is not to harm the students and faculty. But I think that you are hungry, and I've rambled on now for a couple of minutes, so Let the Feast Begin!"

The food appeared on the plates as usual, and the school had one last meal together before going home.

\\\/

"Potter, I will miss you," said Krum, as he was walking to the Durmstrang Ship.

"You as well, Victor," responded Harry. "You were a worthy opponent."

"You as well, it was fun."

Just then, Ron came running up. "Mr Krum, can I get your autograph?"

Krum cheerfully signed the parchment for Ron.

It was so very close to when the Hogwarts Express would be leaving, so Harry, Ginny, and Hermione got their things together to take yet another ride on that train.

A/N: A/N stands for Author's Notes, and I generally use them for extra information that doesn't go in the text body

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

25000th word of Book 4: Been ('Malfoy had been given', Chapter 11)

30000th word of Book 4: Erupted ('The stadium erupted', Chapter 13)

35000th word of Book 4: Thing ('Krum had done the same thing', Chapter 14)

Book 1: 17,439 words

Book 2: 20,192 words

Book 3: 17,007 words

Book 4:

total through Three Books: 54,386 words (18,128.67 words/book, 1875.38 words/chapter) (decreased from above total due to summery in Book 3) (29 Chapters)

at the end of chapter 14: 35,273 words for Book 4 (2519.5 words/chapter)

total through Four Books: 89,659 words (22,414.75 words/book, 2085.09 words/chapter)


	15. Epilogue

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Epilogue

The 31st of October, 1999 was a very important day. In August, Ginny had turned 18, and in September, Hermione had turned 20. Of course, in July Harry had turned 19. Yes, the day was Halloween, but that wasn't the most important part of the day.

Today was the day of Harry, Hermione, and Ginny's wedding in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Hermione's parents had been allowed in by the use of a special necklace, which would repel the standard Anti-Muggle wards at the school.

Harry was waiting with his best man, Neville, at the front of the Hall, in front of where the High Table would normally be. Dumbledore was standing, facing the Entrance Doors, holding a book in his hands. An organ had been brought in for the occasion, and someone started to play the wedding march, which was not traditional for a Wizard wedding.

Ginny took her father's hand, and Hermione took her father's hand, as they walked down the aisle.

"We are gathered here today for the joining of Mr Harry Potter and Miss Hermione Granger, and Mr Harry Black with Miss Ginevra Weasley in the bonds of Holy Matrimony. The bond and covenant of marriage is an ancient one, established by Merlin when He created magic.

"The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by Merlin for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is His will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord. Therefore marriage is not to be entered into inadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it was instituted by Merlin.

"Who gives this woman, Miss Hermione Granger, to be married to this man, Mr Harry Potter?" asked Dumbledore.

"I do," answered Dan Granger.

"Who gives this woman, Miss Ginevra Weasley, to be married to this man, Mr Harry Black?"

"I do," answered Arthur Weasley.

"There is a Muggle reading from one of their Holy Books that Miss Granger would like me to read. As it is a Scripture that adheres to my own beliefs, I will read it. Be attentive! The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

"Peace be with you, reader," whispered Harry.

"Are there rings?" asked Dumbledore. Bianca, now five years old, jumped off of her mother's lap, and presented the ring box to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore took out Hermione's and Harry's rings. "I bless these rings in the Holy Name of Merlin, always now and ever and forever."

Dumbledore took out Ginny's ring. "This ring, I do bless, in the Name of the Most Holy Merlin, always now and ever and forever."

"Mr Potter, the Lord Black, please take Miss Weasley's hands. Miss Weasley, your vows, please."

"I, Ginevra Molly Weasley, take Harry James Black to be my Wizard. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life. I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, with all that I have, I honour you, in Merlin's name"

In the front row, Molly Weasley and Emma Granger were crying their eyes out, even though they hadn't gotten to Hermione's part of the ceremony yet. Ginny was reminded of when she looked in the Mirror of Erised all those many years ago, when she was just a little girl who had sneaked onto the _Hogwarts Express_. She quickly realised that this truly was her heart's greatest desire.

"I, Harry James Potter, the Lord Black, in my person as Harry James Black, take Ginevra Molly Weasley to be my Witch. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life. I give you this ring, as a symbol of my vow, with all that I have, I honour you, in Merlin's name"

"By the saying of these vows, the joining of hands, and the giving and receiving a ring, I pronounce Mr Harry Potter, the Lord Black, and Miss Ginevra Weasley Wizard and Witch." announced Dumbledore as he tapped his wand on the couple's intertwined hands, binding them as husband and wife. "May I present The Lord Harry James and the Lady Ginevra Molly Black!"

"Mr Potter, please take Miss Granger's hands," said Dumbledore after Ginny and Hermione switched places. "Do you have vows?"

"I, Hermione Jean Granger, take you, Harry James Potter the Lord Potter, to my wedded Wizard, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, until death us do part. By the presence of Merlin, I make this vow."

"I, Harry James Potter, the Lord Potter, take you, Hermione Jean Granger, to my wedded Witch, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, until death us do part. By the presence of Merlin, I make this vow. I give you this ring in the Holy Name of Merlin, as a symbol of my love for you."

Emma Granger was crying so hard that she couldn't see.

"By the Giving of these vows, and by the Power invested upon me by Merlin, I now pronounce you Witch and Wizard," said Dumbledore, tapping the couple's hands, binding them husband and wife. "May I present Lord Harry James and Lady Hermione Jean Potter!"

"Hip hip hooray!" came the call from the crowd, three times.

"Merlin grant them many years!" called Dumbledore, and the audience started to sing the traditional song, "Merlin grant them many years," which had been imported to the Wizarding World by Ss Cyril and Methodius back in the early ninth century.

Dumbledore then asked everyone to leave the Great Hall for a couple of minutes, so that they could set up for the party.

\\\/ **Fourteen years later**

Autumn seemed to come quickly that year. This year, 1 September was crisp and golden as an apple, as a family made its way onto Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross in London.

"You know it won't be too long, Lils," said Harry to his second-youngest daughter, whose birthday was 31 October 2002. She looked so much like her namesake, with the red hair and the green eyes. The only reason that she wasn't mistaken for a Weasley was that her hair was the wrong shade of red.

"But I want to go with my brothers!" said Lily Luna Potter, daughter of Hermione and Harry.

"Not this year, you're much too young," said Harry. "And they've changed the rules since I went, so don't try what your other mum did."

On the other end of the platform was Cedric Potter, age 11, along with James Potter, age 12, and Arthur Black, also age 12, son of Ginny and Harry.

They were accompanied by Rose and Martha Weasley, 11, Ron's twin daughters with Luna.

\\\/

Ron also had two other children, Bonnie Weasley, who'd be starting Hogwarts the next year, and Michael Weasley, starting in two years. Amazingly, he'd managed to give them quite normal names, despite the oddities of their mother. Luna was heavily pregnant with their fifth child, a boy, who was going to be named Hugo.

Despite being a Weasley, Luna had decided to take time off from having children, and go for another hunt for 'Unusual and Rare Creatures.'

Gred and Forge Weasley had married Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell in a double ceremony. Nobody was quite sure who was married to whom, as the Twins still did their name-switching trick. Angelina had two children: Fred and Gideon, and Katie also had two children, named George and Fabian.

Neville had married Hannah Abbott, a former Hufflepuff, who was revising for her Nurse's Papers. It was rumoured that she wanted Pomfrey's job at Hogwarts. They had one child, Frank Longbottom II, although it was also rumoured that Hannah was pregnant with a girl (a fact that would be confirmed the next month). Neville had recently been given the job of Herbology Professor at Hogwarts.

Farther down the platform, Percy was talking _ad naseum _about broomstick regulations. He had married Penelope Clearwater, and they had two children together, but as Percy wasn't the nicest person, Harry and Ginny could never be bothered to learn the children's names. Hermione, of course, would know.

Harry saw Draco Malfoy on the Platform and gave a short nod. Whilst they would never be 'friends', Harry had been forced to work with Malfoy in the previous years, due to their common interest in the government. Both men had been forced to make compromises to their Legislation to make it suitable for The Opposition. Amazingly, Draco was less of a bigot now, but had married Pure-Blood Astoria Greengrass. Scorpius, their child, was starting Hogwarts this year. The boy looked almost like a clone of his father and grandfather.

Amazingly, Ginny and Harry hadn't had quite as many children as Hermione and Harry, although Ginny was pregnant with a third child.

\\\/

Harry came over to his sons. "Dad, what if I'm a Hufflepuff?" asked Cedric.

"You are named after the Winner of the Triwizard Tournament, your Uncle Cedric. He is one of the bravest, but also one of the most Hufflepuff men on this planet. Hufflepuff would be glad to have you. Gryffindor would, too. Now if Slytherin comes along," joked Harry.

"And if I am in Slytherin?"

"We will still love you the same," said Harry. "I would of course expect you to be the best Slytherin you could be."

Harry lowered his voice before continuing, "If you're so worried, you can ask the Hat to put you in Gryffindor, that's what I did. Well, it was more like, 'Not Slytherin, not Slytherin' but the point stands. Now you stay out of trouble, and don't let your brothers push you around, OK?"

"Thanks, Dad," said Cedric as he got onto the Train for the first time. "I'll stay out of trouble, you know me."

"Yes, that's what I'm afraid of," said Harry. "Say hello to Bianca! I don't want to hear any bad reports about you from Headmistress McGonagall!"

Bianca, Hermione's sister, was in her final year at Hogwarts, and was Head Girl, something that her older sister had also achieved.

Cedric, James, and Arthur got on the train, while Ginny, Lily, Ariana (daughter of Ginny), Harry, and Hermione headed home to pick up little Emma and Neville Potter from their grandparents' house.

"Did you see the newspaper yet?" asked Harry.

"Is it the usual?" asked Ginny.

"Yes," replied Harry. Ginny groaned.

Every single time that Hermione or Ginny got pregnant, the newspapers said that the couple was considering the name 'Albus Severus Potter' for their son.

While Harry, Hermione, and Ginny respected their late headmaster, Harry had said multiple times that he would not inflict the initials ASP on any of his children.

Dumbledore had died in the way people expected the least. He had died on 1 September 2008 of old age, at the age of 127, mere hours before the students were due to return. Most people had thought that Dumbledore would've died taking a Killing Curse, or fighting some dark wizard. But in the end, old age caught up with the professor.

"I can't believe it's been five years," said Hermione.

Of the trio, Harry had been the hardest hit by their Headmaster's death, as he had grown rather close to Albus. Bianca had grown very close to her 'Grandpa Albus'. Hermione had also been hit hard by Albus's death, as she had always admired the man.

As they were leaving, Harry's hand went up to the faint scar on his forehead, a scar that hadn't hurt for 20 years, and all was well.

\\\/

Harry's Children:

James Sirius Potter, born 9 July 2000, son of Hermione

Arthur James Black, born 1 August 2000, son of Ginny, best friends with James

Cedric Daniel Potter, born 25 September 2001, son of Hermione

Lily Luna Potter, born 31 October 2002, daughter of Hermione

Ariana Lily Black, born 29 June 2004, daughter of Ginny

Emma Molly Potter, born 14 July 2005, daughter of Hermione

Neville Frank Potter, born 1 April 2007, son of Hermione

Dean Seamus or Sarah Jane Potter, birthdate after 1 September 2012, offspring of Ginny

Ron's Children:

Rose and Martha Weasley, twins born 31 August 2001

Bonnie Weasley, born 2 July 2002

Michael Weasley, 30 March 2003

Hugo Weasley, born 28 September 2012 (due 14 September)

A/N:

The wedding text is taken from _The Book of Common Prayer, The Holy Bible (English Standard Version), The Holy Bible (New King James Version) _(used to revise ESV version) and Orthodox Christian wedding traditions. The verse is, of course, 1 Corinthians 13

I am pretty sure that I will now go back and revise all of the chapters of this book through the Second Task, as they are in 1st person (Ginny), which would've been impractical for the final chapters, which are 3rd person. Plus, a majority of my reviewers hated the 1st person, Ginny Point-of-view

A couple of _Doctor Who _references here:

Rose and Martha (Ron's daughters), named after the first two companions of the Tenth Doctor

Sarah Jane (a possible name for Ginny's offspring), named after Sarah Jane Smith, companion to Multiple Doctors

In Chapter 14, the Aurors are on Mauve Alert, a reference to _The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances _(season 1, with Christopher Eccleston)

5000th word of Book 4: Eaters ('former Death Eaters', Chapter 3)

10000th word of Book 4: was ('first Quidditch match was soon', Chapter 5)

15000th word of Book 4: Dobby ('later that day Dobby', Chapter 7)

20000th word of Book 4: Another ('Another member', Chapter 9)

25000th word of Book 4: Been ('Malfoy had been given', Chapter 11)

30000th word of Book 4: Erupted ('The stadium erupted', Chapter 13)

35000th word of Book 4: Thing ('Krum had done the same thing', Chapter 14)

Book 1: 17,439 words

Book 2: 20,192 words

Book 3: 17,007 words

Book 4: 37,537 words (2502.47 words/chapter)

Total Length: 91,923 words (22,980.75 words/book, 2089.15 words/chapter)

The reason that a possible name for Ginny's child is "Dean Seamus" is simply because they were classmates.


	16. Alternate version of Ch 14: Endings

Avengers and Tournaments

A continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp, "A Missed Traffic Light" and "Bonds of Friendship, Book 2" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc.)

Alternate Chapter 14—The End

WARNING: An animal attacks something ferociously, and I partially describe it. If you don't like animals eating other animals, do not read this chapter, Skip down to the author's notes.

_The Cup was a Portkey. They were in some type of graveyard._

"_I see that the guest of honour has arrived," said a high, sibilant voice. "Kill the spare, Dawlish."_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_ shouted the Auror Dawlish. Cedric quickly dodged behind a gravestone, and the curse passed harmlessly overhead.

"_Get the boy,"_ said the snake-like voice. Harry only knew one voice that sounded like that, Lord Voldemort. It was then that he was Stunned.

When he came to, he was tied to a gravestone marked **Tom Riddle**. That's when his suspicions were confirmed. _That's Voldemort's Muggle dad's name,_ Harry thought to himself. The Cup was nowhere to be seen, nor was Cedric.

There was a large bubbling cauldron in front of Harry. Dawlish took the creature Harry presumed to be Voldemort and placed it in the cauldron.

Dawlish took a bone from the grave Harry was tied to. "Bone of the Father, unknowingly given, you shall renew your son." said the Auror.

_Speaking of Aurors, what's taking them so long? _Harry thought to himself, almost missing the next part of the Ceremony.

Dawlish cut off a finger, and dropped it into the cauldron saying, "Flesh of the Servant, willingly given, you shall revive your master."

Dawlish then came at Harry with a knife. He cut along Harry's arm in the shape of the Dark Mark. He tipped the blood on the knife into the Cauldron. "Blood of the Enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."

The cauldron exploded, and a fine mist appeared. Out of the mist, stepped Lord Voldemort.

"My wand, Dawlish," said Voldemort.

Dawlish reverently gave the wand to the Dark Lord. "I see that you rescued it from the Auror Evidence bins, my loyal servant."

"Of course, milord," said Dawlish.

"Put out your arm," said Voldemort. When Dawlish complied, Voldemort touched the Dark Mark on the Auror's arm.

Harry expected excruciating pain, but none came. Perhaps the severing of the connection between him and Voldemort helped that. Soon, people started Apparating into the graveyard in full Death Eater regalia.

"My Lord, you're alive," cried one of them.

"So few of you here," said the Dark Lord. Then more Apparations occurred.

"Mr Voldemort, we have you surrounded. Put your arms up and surrender!" said a loud voice. Quicker than a blink of an eye, Voldemort shot a green curse at the speaker and the person collapsed, dead. The pink-haired Auror who'd taught at Hogwarts took Harry down from the ropes.

"What took you so long?" asked Harry.

"We ran into some _complications_," said Tonks, the Auror who preferred to be known by her last name only. "Now let's blow this thing and go home."

Voldemort started sending Killing Curses in every direction. Some hit his Death Eaters, others simply destroyed gravestones that the Aurors were hidden behind.

Harry noticed that Tonks was wearing what looked to be a watch. The watch now showed two sections of mauve.

"What does that mean?" asked Harry.

"Rules of Engagement have changed," the Auror replied. "You will have to survive on your own, until we can take down the Target, or until we are forced to retreat. Double Mauve means that Killing Force is allowed."

One Auror started firing curses at Voldemort, while the Aurors were taking down what few Death Eaters there were. Harry foolishly jumped into the fray, blasting curses at the Death Eaters, and eventually picking up a fallen wand.

_It never hurts to have two, _he thought. The Dark Lord noticed Harry and shot a Killing Curse at him, right as Harry shot _Sectumsempra _at Voldemort. The curses connected. A beam of white light formed between the two wands, and started putting out enormous amounts of energy.

"Do not interfere!" shouted Voldemort at his Death Eaters. Unfortunately, there were no Death Eaters still standing to take the order not to interfere.

_Good thing I picked up a second wand, huh, _thought Harry. He focused all of his feelings of love towards Hermione and Ginny, Sirius, Gwendolen, the Weasleys and his dead parents into what is notably a Dark Arts Spell, and amazingly, his second _Sectumsempra _worked. It was a little harder to cast than with his own wand, still connected with Voldemort's, but it worked.

"What did you do to me?" cried Voldemort as he tried to renew the power in the Killing Curse still connected with Harry's wand.

The connection broke, and Harry quickly changed into his Animagus form. The panther charged at Voldemort, and viscously attacked the Dark Lord. Harry quickly ripped Voldemort's neck open with his gigantic teeth, chomping down to make sure that his nemesis was dead. He then killed a snake that happened to be slithering by and ate it, because he was hungry. It didn't taste all that bad to Harry-the-Panther.

"Harry, snap out of it," said Tonks. Harry growled at the woman before realising who she was. "You've let your Form take over!"

Harry just gave her a look as he sat down to devour his prey like a lion. Only when he had his fill did he get up and resume his human form.

"We need to get our story straight," said Harry. "Oi! Ministry Lot, listen up! I played no part in taking down the Dark Lord. You did that yourself. I was just an observer, got that?"

With a look that clearly said, "What the hell just happened?" the Aurors nodded.

"Harry, come with me, we need to get back to Hogwarts," said Tonks, taking his hand. They Apparated back to Hogwarts.

\\\/ Twenty Minutes prior

_The Cup was a Portkey. They were in some type of graveyard._

"_I see that the guest of honour has arrived," said a high, sibilant voice. "Kill the spare, Dawlish."_

"_Avada Kedavra!"_ shouted the Auror Dawlish. Cedric quickly dodged behind a gravestone, and the curse passed harmlessly overhead.

"Get the boy," said the snake-like voice. Cedric saw Harry been stunned, and no sign of any Aurors. He summoned the Cup, and it took him back to the judges stand.

"That's my son," shouted his dad. "He's won the Triwizard Tournament."

Dumbledore, Bones, and Longbottom rushed over. "What's happened? Our tracking system is down."

"You'll find it was Dawlish who did that," said Cedric. "And diverted the Portkey."

"Dawlish? I never even knew that he was a sympathiser!" said Amelia Bones. "Where did it take you? Where's Harry?"

"It went to a graveyard. One of the tombstones was marked **Tom Riddle,**" Cedric said. He could see the colour drain from Dumbledore's face. "Dawlish is there; a homunculus was there ordering him around. I think that it was the Dark Lord, and that Dawlish is trying to restore Him to a body.

"Are you absolutely certain that's what the tombstone was labelled, Mr Diggory?" asked Dumbledore. At Cedric's nod, Dumbledore turned to Amelia Bones. "They are in a town called Little Hangleton. Get your Aurors there now! We have the perfect opportunity to Defeat the Dark Lord at his weakest. As Chief Warlock, I hereby place the Aurors on Double Mauve Alert—Killing Force is authorised after he tries to kill you."

The Headmaster and Bones ran off, while Cedric's dad came down from the stands. "I'm so proud of you, boy," Cedric's dad said. "You've won the Triwizard Tournament!"

"No, dad, it was a draw," Cedric clarified.

"But you're here and Harry's not!"

"Harry is in the middle of something big, Dad," said Cedric. "Dawlish has been the Traitor in the Core. Dawlish needs Harry to help resurrect the Dark Lord, not that Potter will do it willingly. We drew for the Triwizard, and the Aurors need to get their quickly or the only Harry Potter we'll ever see is a dead one!"

\\\/ That same moment in Little Hangleton

"Target is sighted," said one Auror. "Got it," said another.

"I've got the boy sighted, Boss," said Tonks.

"Go for it," said Kingsley. "Protect the Boy. Aurors, fall out, attempt to arrest the Death Eaters. If they resist, curse them."

"Mr Voldemort, we have you surrounded. Put your arms up and surrender!" said the first Auror in a loud voice. Quicker than Tonks' eyes could see, a green light sped towards the Auror and killed him. That's when her watch started flashing double mauve.

"What took you so long?" asked Harry.

"We ran into some _complications_," said Tonks in reply. "Now let's blow this thing and go home."

Voldemort started sending Killing Curses in every direction. Some hit his Death Eaters, others simply destroyed gravestones that the Aurors were hidden behind.

"What does that mean?" asked Harry pointing to the watch.

"Rules of Engagement have changed," the Auror replied. "You will have to survive on your own, until we can take down the Target, or until we are forced to retreat. Double Mauve means that Killing Force is allowed."

One of the Aurors started firing curses at Voldemort. Tonks was busy fighting off the Death Eaters. Right now, she was working on Macnair, of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. Tonks knew that he liked killing just as much as most giants did. She finished up her duel with him, taking him down permanently.

Just then, Voldemort's wand seemed to connect with Harry's. "Do not interfere!" yelled the Dark Lord to his followers. Except that there weren't any followers left conscious to take that order.

Harry pulled out a second wand, and cast something with it. It looked like a Dark Curse, and it caused Voldemort to break the connection.

Tonks realised that Harry was changing form—he was an Animagus!—legally, she hoped. Potter was a very large panther. The panther sprang at the Dark Lord, and viscously attacked him. The panther started to rip Voldemort's neck open, and then snapped the neck with its teeth, which Tonks noticed were large. Maybe large wasn't the right term: they were huge, at least 5-10 cm large.

The panther then spotted a snake nearby and killed it, too. It then ate the snake, devouring each bite.

"Harry, snap out of it," said Tonks. The panther growled at the woman before realising who she was. "You've let your Form take over!"

The panther mostly ignored Tonks, as it sat down on the ground, similarly to a lion, and started to eat the Dark Lord's body. The body was just barely recognisable as the Dark Lord when the panther walked away, and Harry resumed his human form.

"We need to get our story straight," said Harry. "Oi! Ministry Lot, listen up! I played no part in taking down the Dark Lord. You did that yourself. I was just an observer, got that?"

With a look that clearly said, "What the hell just happened?" the Aurors nodded.

"Harry, come with me, we need to get back to Hogwarts," said Tonks, taking his hand. They Apparated back to Hogwarts. She was amazed at the ferocity that Harry had just shown towards the Dark Lord, and hoped that she never got on the wrong side of that beast.

There was a little known hole in the Wards, at a certain point, that only Aurors and the Headmaster could get through. She would've preferred to use the Floo, but as there wasn't one available, she had to Apparate Potter back.

\\\/

"What happened?" asked Dumbledore, surprised to see Harry looking so well. It looked to Dumbledore as if Harry hadn't even experienced the _Cruciatus Curse _at the hands of Lord Voldemort.

"Well, the Aurors came to rescue me, and found that an Auror by the name of Dawlish, who foolishly fought the real Aurors and died for it, had resurrected the Dark Lord. They then fought the man and his Death Eaters until they started using Darker and darker curses, until finally the Dark Lord and most of his followers were dead."

"I'd like to discuss this more after the ceremony, Harry," said Dumbledore, only partially believing what Harry had told him. Dumbledore knew that most Aurors would piss their pants at the sight of the Dark Lord, and with good reason. "Come up to my office then."

"Yes, Headmaster," said Harry.

The ceremony was later that evening in the Great Hall.

"Could I have your attention, please!" called Dumbledore. "To present the Winners of the Triwizard Tournament, I present The Dowager Countess, the Dowager Lady Longbottom, Minister Longbottom!"

"Thank you," said Minister Longbottom, waving her hands to tell the crowd to quiet down. "I would like to recognise our Runners-Up. From Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour, and from Durmstrang, Mr Victor Krum"

There was a thunderous applause as the Champions stood up and acknowledged it.

"Now, our winners who both touched the Cup at the same time, and who insist that they drew with each other : Please welcome to the stage Mr Cedric Diggory and Mr Harry Potter!"

Harry and Cedric went up to the stage in their finest robes—for Harry, they were the same robes he'd worn to the Inauguration. On the stage, there were two giant cheques and the Triwizard Trophy. The Minister handed them their oversized cheques (redeemable for cash at Gringotts Bank), and many photos were taken. Cedric and Harry gave each other a look, and then grabbed the Trophy together, holding it high.

"Now, if Mr Potter and Mr Diggory would like to say a few words?" said the Minister.

"Uh, I'd like to thank you all for coming, and I'd like to thank you for your support during this Tournament," said Harry, once again to thunderous applause. "I'd like to congratulate Mr Diggory, for winning the tournament with me, the other Champions, who gave me stiff competition during this tournament, and for the Aurors who, I am proud to say, compromised the Dark Lord, Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort to a permanent end."

This was met with the loudest cheering yet. Harry estimated that the noise level was at least 130dB.

"I am pleased to announce that, when the Aurors came to save my skin after I was kidnapped by the Forces of the now dead Dark Lord, they were able not only to save me, but to take down the Dark Lord and His followers. It is a great day that I can stand here, and announce this, for Voldemort is dead, and his followers are in rather bad shape.

"Once again, I'd like to thank The Headmasters and Headmistress of the Schools, the Minister for Magic, The Director of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, and my friends and family, for putting this Tournament together, for keeping me safe, and for supporting me through this tournament."

Cedric then went up to the podium. "True Hufflepuffs value hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play above all else. While I cannot say whether or not I am truly a Hufflepuff, although I think I am, Mr Potter, my co-winner exhibits many of these same traits. Yes, Mr Potter also acts very much like a Gryffindor some times, and on occasion, and I am sorry for saying this Harry, acts like a Slytherin, but I choose to think that Mr Potter would have done well in Hufflepuff.

"I know that this really isn't the place to be praising my fellow winner, but Mr Potter is a great young man. I had my doubts at the beginning that he'd even survive the first task, but he has now proven himself to be one of the best Hogwarts has to offer.

"Like Harry, I'd like to thank the Headmasters, and the Minister for Magic, and the DMLE for their quick work in saving Harry and defeating You-Know-Who. I am inspired by the difference a good Minister can be, and Mrs Longbottom is a great Minister. Instead of tucking tail and not believing us, she immediately got her Aurors to the scene of the Crime, and were able to take down You-Know-Who. She is a great Minister that takes the Death Eaters off the streets, and puts them into Azkaban, where they belong.

"Victor and Fleur, you were some of the best opponents that I could ask for. I especially enjoyed beating you to that Snitch in the first game. You made the Tournament enjoyable, despite the attempts of others to disrupt our lives."

"Thank you, Mr Diggory, and Mr Potter," said the Minister. "I am glad that my public is confident that I will do the right thing. Now that we're finished with that part of the ceremony, I'd like to introduce the All-Star Teams for the match between All-Star Hogwarts v All-Star Visitors.

"For the Visitors, Keeper #1 Konstantin Mihailov, Chasers #2 Julienne Paquin, #9 Marion Allemoz and #7 Andriy Mikhnov, Beaters #6 Sara Seiler and #5 Orlene LaForce, and Seeker #7 Captain Victor Krum."

"For Hogwarts, Keeper #5 Grant Page, Chasers #1 Angelina Johnson, #4 Tasmin Applebee, and #3 Chris Warrington, Beaters #8 and #9 Fred and George Weasley, and Seeker #7 Captain Harry Potter."

Naturally, cheers accompanied this announcement, along with some boos, particularly from the players that didn't get chosen.

\\\/

That night, after the ceremony was over, Harry went up to the Headmaster's office.

"You wished to see me, Professor?" asked Harry.

"I don't believe your story, Harry," said Dumbledore. "What did you do?"

"I couldn't tell you the real story in front of people, could I?" said Harry. "As I don't want the credit for this, my story remains that the Dark Lord was offed by the Aurors."

"But what really happened?"

"The Aurors didn't take care of the Dark Lord," said Harry. "They were too busy with the Death Eaters. During the Battle, I picked up a second wand—that will be significant. I started to duel Voldemort, and our spells connected. He used a Killing Curse, I used a Proprietary Dark Cutting Curse that I learned. I then used the second wand to cause him to break the connection. I cast the same charm, but I focused on my love of everyone—Hermione, Ginny, you, the Weasleys, Bianca, the Grangers, Sirius, Gwendolen—into the spell, and it hit him, causing him to collapse in pain.

"Then I ate him."

"You what?"

"I turned into my Animagus form and ripped him and his snake to shreds. I don't think that I will need to eat anything at the parties tonight."

"What?"

"I lost control, but just a little," remarked Harry. "Honestly, resurrected Dark Lord doesn't really taste all that good, even to a panther. The snake tasted a lot better. The best, of course, is a steak. My Animagus form thinks 'the rawer the better,' for that steak."

The headmaster was in shock as Harry turned to leave.

\\\/

Tickets were being sold at 4s apiece for the All-Star Game, and quickly the number of tickets sold exceeded 10000. The tickets were being sold for charity, and the charity got a donation of over 4200 Galleons, after Harry matched the donation.

The game itself ended up being a nice friendly game. Harry had made his team train, so that they could at least play decently together. Krum had done the same thing with his team. It was a good way to end a school year.

The Great Hall was as crowded as ever for the Leaving Feast. After the Feast, the students would be getting on their respective transports to go home.

"Another year gone," said Professor Dumbledore. "And what a year it was. The Triwizard Tournament, and the Quidditch Cup, well done to all that participated in those events. Usually, at this point I'd award the House Cup, but suffice it to say, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor won the House Cup this year. I hope that you all remember your time here well. I was pleased to have an amazing group of students at this school this year, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, abilities and shortcomings.

"Each of you will always be invited back to this school, as long as it is not to harm the students and faculty. But I think that you are hungry, and I've rambled on now for a couple of minutes, so Let the Feast Begin!"

The food appeared on the plates as usual, and the school had one last meal together before going home.

\\\/

"Potter, I will miss you," said Krum, as he was walking to the Durmstrang Ship.

"You as well, Victor," responded Harry. "You were a worthy opponent."

"You as well, it was fun."

Just then, Ron came running up. "Mr Krum, can I get your autograph?"

Krum cheerfully signed the parchment for Ron.

It was so very close to when the Hogwarts Express would be leaving, so Harry, Ginny, and Hermione got their things together to take yet another ride on that train.

A/N:

I decided to post an alternate version of Chapter 14. I came up with it shortly after I finished the epilogue, and it came to me: I gave Harry an Animagus form that he can control properly, so why not let him use it? Why have the clichéd people throw curses at each other until someone dies, when I can just have Harry use his Animagus form to defeat Voldemort.

You might realise that the attack sounds a bit more vicious from Tonks' point of view.


End file.
